


Underrated X

by ShadeDuelist



Series: TrossiDuelist stories [7]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 11:48:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4434356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeDuelist/pseuds/ShadeDuelist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(VERY NSFW!  Has multiple kinks, mentions of threesomes, foursomes, has got some BDSM mentions and situations, but it also has mentions of infidelity, difficult lives, etc.  Read at your own discretion.)</p><p>(second warning: this story is full of original characters from my stories and from trossidevil's 'Sore Losers'.  If you don't like reading about original characters, then please don't read this.)</p><p>Dwight Markham works as an actor in adult films - it's the only way he can make ends meet while at the same time making sure that he can give his deceased parents justice.  After a year of starring only in gay porn, he gets an offer to star alongside one of the company's greatest stars in straight porn.  Gets more than just good money out of it, too...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underrated X

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trossidevil](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=trossidevil).



Dwight had known, of course, what he got into when he applied for the job; even more so when he’d been asked to strip down in the casting manager’s office.  It wasn’t that he was  _proud_ to be an actor in X-rated movies (a  _star_ actor, his agent Lyndon said; he toned it down considerably)… he just really, really needed the money.  His parents having died in an accident and most of their estate going into the legal proceedings that followed… well, maybe it hadn’t been such a great idea to want to sue a multi-billion dollar company for negligence, but he’d wanted justice for his parents, John Markham and Letizia Lopez - just like they’d want justice for him if he were the one to have a fatal car crash with a runaway delivery truck.  He’d gotten nowhere, though: the case was dismissed, the company made him lose his home, and he was broke. Until he’d gotten the offer from his friend to join her and get a better-paying job, he’d been working as the lowest end of a startlingly short list of employees in a job that didn’t promise anything but low wages and stress for the remainder of his life… he hadn’t hesitated even for a second into accepting his one ticket out of his misery.

Which ended him up here, doing what they expected him to do.  Selling his body for a price.  Getting paid to have sex, even if it was choreographed to the minutest detail, who wouldn’t find that ‘easy money’?  He’d long since reconsidered.  Sure, as far as ‘dirty’ jobs went, it was okay work - the hours were manageable, and the movies he were in were more artsy than some of the muck that was out there, making sure that the ones watching them were less likely to mention them - but all he could think as he groaned when his co-star lavished attention to his pecs was that he wished he didn’t desperately need the money.

He performed as required for the ‘reluctant guy’: looking away from his own erection when his co-star gently pulled his pants down to stroke him, groaning, occasionally saying ‘no’… then occasionally saying ‘yes’, then saying it more and more frequently until he panted out ‘oh yeah, j-jus’ like that… baby, ‘m gonna…’ and he did, making a mess on his own stomach that was joined by the mess of his co-star exactly a minute later. Panting, he managed a glowing look at the man he’d just been taken by… and then, mercifully, the director called ‘cut’ and he sighed, getting up.

“Ricky, take a shower and then go back to Kayci, you’re doing an outdoor shoot next.  Clint, that was an  _excellent_ take, I think this is the first time we’ll ever use a first cut!  …The way you looked at him at the end…”  The director of this film was a down-to-earth man called Jane Doe - it would’ve been a perfect alias if it weren’t the man’s  _real name_ , Dwight mused. “…So, Clint, since this is a wrap for  _you_ , how would you feel about working another project with me?”, Jane asked, and Dwight shook his head.

“Ah been asked fer another project already, misteh Doe, but thanks fer yer offer.”

“Oh, yeah, you’ll be starring alongside Ivana Yarod, right? …oho, if you are, you’re in for a treat.  Best damn girl Ruby has to offer!  …Who’s directin’ again?”, he asked - Dwight racked his mind for the answer only for the man himself to speak with a grin.  “Ah, heh, yeah, Bayle is.  That guy’s got  _vision_ and  _ambition_ , that’s for damn sure!  ‘Dreamgirl’, what a name for an X-rated vid…  …Did  _he_ do the casting rounds then?  I mean, Ivana don’t star alongside just anyone.”

“Ah… don’t know, misteh Doe, they kind ‘f  _gave_ me the job.”, Dwight said, his smile genuine for once.  Having been offered the job meant he’d been in a position to ask for a 10 percent increase in pay, which the director had readily given, plus a chance to turn down other less desirable jobs.  Not to mention straight porn would probably be easier.  He’d often been told his southern charms would be offset nicer when he co-starred with a woman.  Even Raphael, his maybe-boyfriend - ‘naw, not my boyfriend, my…  _admirer_ …’, Dwight mused - was of the opinion that he’d work better with a female co-star, if only because ‘constantly starrin’ with men makes ya look feminine, Dwight, and that ain’t how ya are, man!’.  “…it were a sweet offer.”, Dwight finished sheepishly, at which point the director nodded.

“As far as ‘sweet deals’ come in this biz, son, you sure landed the sweetest.  Soooo… did they discuss the gig with ya yet?  Or do I need to brownnose the details out of Kev - ahem, you know, do I need to  _charm Bayle_ into telling me himself?”

“They ain’t give me no ‘game plan’ like yew do, misteh Doe.”, Dwight confessed, feeling a little apprehensive all of a sudden. He’d been talking to his roommate Teresa about how to best pleasure a woman - she’d eagerly shared her knowledge, even asked if he’d like to practice but he drew the line firmly there… but what if he wasn’t any good?  What if they expected him to do some exotic position that he had never even heard about?  And what if Ivana  _hated his guts_?  She was said to be a feisty woman, very brazen and outspoken, both on camera and in real life…  Yet, as if sensing his unease, his current director patted him on the shoulder somewhat amically and chuckled.

“Ah, I know Kev - he’s got a plan drawn up for ya to the minutest detail.  Bet he’ll even tell ya where to aim when ya go off.  And as for Ivana… sure, she’s known as a diva, but I’ve worked with her a couple of times and I know what she likes, Clint, son…  Two words: wild and intense.  When you eat her out, don’t dawdle, go straight for the money, son.  When you do her from behind, push her into whatever she’s leanin’ or layin’ on.  When she does you - which she’ll probably end up doin’, she likes being in control - don’t just lay there, give as good as ya got.  Make her scream once, that’s no big deal, but make her come  _twice_ and she’s your friend for life.  …Just, uh, just don’t expect much interaction from her offscreen, I guess, Ivana’s a pretty solitary person.  Likes her  _hobbies_ more than her  _people_ in her spare time.”

“Heh, whut’s she do, then?”, Dwight said, and Jane snorted, answering with a note of something upset in his voice.

“ _Tinkering_.  Fancies herself to be the next damn Thomasina Edison or something.  She makes some okay stuff, but doing that costs money.  Money she’s earning spreadin’ her legs and takin’ on men.”  Dwight rolled his eyes, but inside he felt like he might just have a shot at making a connection to his next co-star. Tinkering was his hobby, too, only not inventing new stuff, just upgrading already existing items.  Tony, the lead camera operator, was already extatic about his tune-ups to some of the equipment, and Eric the set manager did like his help for some of the lighting rigs that now managed to turn 360 degrees in  _all_ directions instead of just horizontally.  Then, however, checking the clock that hung off to the side, he groaned and patted the director on his arm.

“Misteh Doe, ah got tuh run.  Yew leave th’outline of that project y’wanted me for with mah agent, awrigh’?”  The man looked mollified and nodded, allowing Dwight to speed off to his trailer, where he showered and then put on his clothes.  As always when he took on his ‘normal’ self again, he inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly, leaving the last traces of Clint Barrett behind and allowing himself to be Dwight again before exiting again and making his way along the various nondescript studios of Ruby Entertainment and Distribution to the mobile coffee corner that stood at the entranceway.  He looked across the street, where the main competitive business, BlackLight Unlimited, had their studios, looking for his friend to walk over to him, but suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see her standing behind him.

“S’mantha!  Girl, how come yeh’re already here?”

“You mean  _beside_ the fact that you’re spectacularly late, as always?”, she joked, causing him to blush and mutter an apology that she waved off before continuing in earnest: “I did a project over here, at Ruby.”

“A-ain’t yew a BlackLight Exclusive?”, he asked, and Sam shrugged.

“Not anymore, but in exchange for Ashleigh Hart, Ruby sent over their very own Anamaria Lopez-”  Dwight gasped.  Anamaria - or Teresa Hernandez, as her real name was - was his roommate and best friend.  They’d been friends long before they’d started their jobs at Ruby Entertainment: she’d been a receptionist at a low-end engineering firm in Texas and he’d been working there as a junior engineer.  When she’d gotten her break, she’d enticed him to follow along, and she’d introduced him to the studio bosses at Ruby and land him his first high-paying role, and in return he’d recommended her to the director of her current (last, he mentally amended) project.  “…who, as you know, is normally a Ruby Exclusive.  She’s living it up with Sinead O’Hara as we speak.”

“Heh, figured that lesbian porn would’a gotten her attention… an’ ah’ll bet sparks are gon’ fly if’n they teamed her up with Sinead.  Eileen’s her girlfriend, after all.”  Now Sam was the one to look surprised.

“Teresa and Eileen?  I didn’t…  _I didn’t know that!_  Now it makes sense that the trade-off was made so quickly and with no protests whatsoever…  A-and it isn’t like I’ve got a right to complain.  They’ve asked Ashleigh here for a series, you see.   _Four_ films, so that’s a fixed income for at least a  _year_ , if not more.  …Don’t tell anyone I told you, but the working title is ‘Chronicles of a Threeway Romance’.”

“Who with?”, Dwight asked, sighing.

“Well,  _one_ of my co-stars, you might know, since this’ll be his first foray into straight porn…  Dante Durant.”  Dwight, of course, knew the man.  He hadn’t starred with him in anything, fortunate or unfortunate as that may have been, but the man was something of a legend on the set floor since he’d been around for ten years already and he still hadn’t lost any admirers or any of his good looks - _considerable_ good looks, since there was never a shortage of fanmail for the man, some packages even containing underwear.  Despite that, he had his flaws, like a sex addiction, a penchant to leave the studio grounds drunk, a foul mouth a sailor would manage to blush at, and a habit of torching minor things out of boredom.  There was a small portion of the parking lot that was sectioned off and labeled ‘Dante’s Inferno Grounds’ just for that purpose.  All in all, Dwight had kept what limited interactions he’d had with the man polite and distant.  “…He’s… well, we haven’t shot anything yet so I can’t say that he’s skilled, but he’s charming in his own way.”

“Ah always got th’impression that he were  _brutally honest_.”, Dwight admitted mildly, to which Sam blushed deeply before nodding.

“C-can you keep a secret?”, she whispered, leaning in a little closer; Dwight nodded and motioned for her to continue, which she did in a conspiratory tone.  “When he saw me, he said ‘ah, donc, that’s the chick you want me an’ Gunner to bang?  No problem!’ all loud, but when the director was off to get Gunner, he stepped closer to me and he said ‘I should at least buy ya dinner before we get up close an’ intimate, here’s my number, text me a restaurant and a time and I’ll meet ya there, chérie’.  So I did the only right thing and texted him ‘Les Roses, seven PM’.”  Dwight was thankful for the barista, a young guy named Harvey whose number he’d been given multiple times, finally handing him his coffee, giving him an excuse to bite back his shocked gasp.  His tone was cautious to a fault when he addressed his friend.

“…Guys in this ‘ere business don’t regularly, uh, take a girl out fer dinner, let alone tuh ‘Les Roses’… don’t yew git intuh what yew don’t wan’ git intuh-”

“Oh, believe me, it’s  _Dante_ \- Gabriel, I suppose I have to say… well, anyway, it’s  _he_ that shouldn’t get into what he doesn’t want to get into.”

“So, all in all, this were a quiet day fer Ashleigh then?”, Dwight asked, and Samantha nodded eagerly.

“A busy day for Samantha but a quiet day for Ashleigh.  But tomorrow…  _ooh,_ that’s another story entirely.  I’ve got  _seven hours_ of shooting, of which three hours outdoors.”

“They want yew doin’ public scenes?”, he asked, but she shook her head.

“No, unless maybe nighttime camping scenes.  The premise is that I’m an undergrad student and that this is my last summer vacation of debauchery with my boyfriend, which’ll be Dante, and our best friend, which’ll be Gunner.”

“…Well, ah can’t speak fer Dante, ‘course, but Gunner -  _Jarrod_  - he’s a fine guy.  Real upfront ‘bout everything. Yew say yew mind somethin’ an’ he’s willin’ tuh go toe-tuh-toe with the director, even, if’n they ask fer it.  …He, uh, he did tha’ fer me.  Like, they wanted me tuh shave mah chest hair fer a part ah had tuh do with him, an’ ah complained tuh the director ‘bout it jus’ when he were passin’ by.  The director said ‘well then we look for someone else fer the part, someone that  _is_ willin’ tuh shave down’ an’ he just walked up ‘sides me an’ put ‘is hand on mah shoulder an’ said ‘then yah better start lookin’ fer a new star’a yer show too’.  A-an’, uh, he added on a few curses in Spanish fer good measure…”, Dwight said, blushing meekly: Sam noticed and laughed lightly.

“Oh,  _Dwight_ , after a full year in this business, you  _still_ can’t find it in yourself to do something as  _mundane_ as  _swear_ … you’re a sweetheart, my dear, never change.  Also today’s coffee is on me.  You’re going to need the caffeine, I think, for meeting your new co-star today.”

“Yeah, Ivana Yarod.”, Dwight said glumly, prompting Sam to speak to him again.

“…Well, I’ve heard about her, but I don’t  _know_ her, of course, I don’t do lesbian porn or two-girl threesomes.  But she seems like an okay woman.  Bit diva-like, maybe, but I’m sure she’s perfectly fine to her co-stars.”  It sounded a little too upbeat, a little too well-rehearsed, for Dwight to be cheered up, even though he smiled perfunctorily.  Then, however, he shrugged, remembering the words his agent had spoken.

“…Lyndon says that ah oughta be fine fer workin’ with Ivana, ‘s long as ah don’t expect any more outta this ‘n a paycheck an’ maybe more offers fer straight porn.”

“…Maybe it won’t feel as bad, huh?  …I mean, you’ll be less likely to… I don’t know, you’ll be less likely to feel like you’re used when it’s a _woman_ touching you…”, Sam suggested in a startling bout of insight, and Dwight just sipped his coffee before his cell bleeped, showing he’d gotten a message from his agent asking him to meet up with him at the director’s office.

“…Well, ah’m ‘fraid Clint’s bein’ summoned fer duty… yew have fun with Dante at tha’ there rest’rant tuhnight - don’t sleep with ‘im if he don’t treat yeh like a lady-”

“You know me, though, Dwight, I can be very unladylike.”, Sam teased with a wink, and Dwight shook his head before leaning in to place a light kiss on the cheek of his friend.

“ _Ashleigh Hart_  ‘s unladylike.  Samantha Tennant ‘s a perfect lady.  An’ no matter how Dante Durant turns out tuh be, Gabriel Dantan better be a purfect gentleman or ah’m comin’ over tuh have a li’l friendly talk with ‘im even  _‘fore_ Damien does.”  Damien Tennant, Sam’s brother and her reluctant agent, was one of the men Dwight got along with easily in the business, both due to their higher education and their kind nature.  And, of course, there was the fact that Dwight was one of the only men that knew about Sam’s depressed brother, Michael, and the fact her parents had cut them both off, forcing her to turn to the porn industry for paychecks high enough to support herself and a teenage boy in constant need of therapy and high-price medication.  Another bleep made Dwight put down his half-finished coffee and speed off down the road towards one of the taller buildings Ruby had among its many studios.  It was only ten stories, but it was home to the creative department offices: not just the art department and the directors, but also PR and advertising as well as the casting offices.  When he exited the elevator, he saw Lyndon waiting for him already in the hallway, walking up to him briskly with large strides of his already stupendously long legs.

“Where ya been, Dwoight?  Ivana’s olready in there, an’ bugger me if she’s not about to throw a hissy-fit-”

“Ah know, ah know, but ‘s more tuh life ‘n  _Clint Barrett_ , Lyn’.  Yew told me yerself tuh socialize with th’others from time tuh time.  Ah found out they’re lendin’ out Reese tuh BlackLight in return fer Sam Tennant-”  His agent drew up an eyebrow, clearly as surprised as he’d been, but then he shrugged and shook his head, his expression lapsing back into one of brooding worry.

“Never yah moind that, Dwoight, let’s get you in here before Ivana  _wrecks_ something.”  He knocked on the door and then, after the director’s call of ‘enter’, pushed Dwight in first. The director, Kevin Bayle, stood behind his desk, all red hair and southern charm.  His accent was undeniable the second he spoke, and Dwight subconsciously found himself relaxing.

“Clint, yeh’re here - good!  … Ivana, sister, git up and shake the man’s hand, don’t sit ‘ere sulkin’-”

“Howdy, Clint.”  The woman’s expression still showed something sulky and unnerved, but then she looked right at him and a brilliant smile appeared on her features.  Brilliant, Dwight mused, and _enticing_.  “Ah can already tell, dahlin’, that yew are the best choice fer this… yeh got that innocent look ‘bout yeh… real ‘boy next door’ kind ‘f material…”

“Ivana, mind lettin’  _me_ do th’explainin’ tuh Clint?”, the director said, crossing his arms before relaxing a little again and turning to Dwight, who smiled shyly back at the man.  “…Well, seein’ as this’ll be yer first non-male experience on film, ah wanted tuh square ‘is off with yew ‘fore we start filmin’-” Dwight rolled his eyes and looked at Lyndon first, then the director, and then finally Ivana.  He’d felt apprehensive about it before, but there was something about the woman’s smile that made him feel half eager and half cautious: something  _giddy_ about the way his stomach clenched now, as opposed to the nerves that had gripped it tightly before.

“…Ah’m gon’ be just fine, misteh Bayle-”

“Please, call me Kevin.  …Okay, if’n yer sure…  Ah was jus’ goin’ over things with Ivana ‘ere.  This is s’posed tuh be a film that couples kin watch tuhgether, so ‘s gon’ be easier on yeh anyways… ‘bout a man that’s been livin’ next tuh his dreamgirl fer all’a ‘is life.  Yew know, watchin’ her go out on dates with fellers, takin’ ‘em home… he sees tha’ an’ he wishes that he were the one goin’ home with her… an’ then, one day, she comes over tuh ask ‘is help ‘bout fixin’ her coffee machine an’ they end up sleepin’ tuhgether an’ confessin’ their feelings fer each other.”  Lyndon looked like he didn’t believe the film’s premise would take off at all, but Dwight nodded.  Sam had always told him that she was a sucker for ‘the romantic angle’ and he had to say he would like some substance to his role, even if it was  _sappy_.  Ivana, who sat next to him, looked happy at the prospect, and he grinned for a second.

“Sounds like a real good idea fer a film, misteh Bayle.  An’ if’n yeh make it mellow-”

“Heh, make no mistake, Clint, son - Ivana don’t  _do_ mellow. Anythin’  _she_ stars in ‘s got ‘fireworks’ written  _all over it_.  But yew got a natural ease ‘bout yeh, somethin’ shy an’ sweet that’s gon’ offset Ivana’s fire.  All them men that’ll watch the film are gon’ imagine bein’ yew, bein’ unbelievably sweet tuh a fireball such as Ivana Yarod - an’ all them ladies that’ll watch are sure gon’ imagine bein’ Ivana, bein’ made sweet love tuh by someone good-lookin’ an’ sensitive as yew, Clint.”  Dwight blushed and stammered a reply, flattered as he was by the director’s compliment - and, if he was honest, the compliment meant just a little more coming from the honestly attractive man - but, to his utter astonishment, Ivana didn’t blow off the comment as he’d imagined she would.  In fact, she seemed eager to  _tack on more praise_.

“Hell, yeh’re leavin’ out ‘skillful’, mister Bayle… Clint came  _highly_ recommended, even by a dumb-fuck like Gunner Deep - ‘s reassurin’ the man still knows ‘handsome’ when it’s face-first up in ‘is crotch.”  She winked at Dwight and patted him on the arm, tracing his arm hairs quasi-mindlessly.  “…So, ah were thinkin’,  _Clint_ , tha’ maybe we oughta rehearse our lines tuhnight…”  The mere fact that they’d have honest-to-god  _lines_ to remember made Dwight nod, ignoring Lyndon’s dumbfounded look and the somewhat sympathetic looks the director cast his way - before he could comment on them, however, Ivana took charge of the conversation with both men again.  “ _Excellent!_ Fellers, ah do b’lieve all the tedious details are dealt with - if’n yeh’ll excuse me an’ Clint, we’ve got some things tuh discuss. Text me the details ‘bout where an’ when we’re expected tuhmorrah mornin’ an’ we’ll be there.”  It faintly - and a little belatedly - occurred to Dwight that he might have said ‘yes’ to rehearsing  _more_ than just lines, but his co-star already pulled him along outside, not speaking more than ‘comin’ through!’ or ‘move it!’ to the people crowding the hallways until they stood outside and she pulled him along to a disused studio off to the side.  It had been one of those buildings that was too small to set up a decent set in anymore and so it’d been turned into a more permanent version of the actors’ trailers.  Ivana’s status more than warranted her use of the building, Dwight caught himself thinking before she pulled open a door and walked him into a dressing room with an ornate couch opposite a long make-up table, with a door off to the side leading to her bathroom.  Once the door was closed, she sighed and relaxed visibly.

“…Ivana-”

“In ‘ere, Ivana don’t exist, darlin’.”, she admitted, offering him her hand.  “Name’s Anna, Anna Rodgers.  Ah take it yer real name ain’t  _Clint_ , right?”, she offered with a slightly mocking tone that unnerved him but at the same time relaxed him, causing him to answer with a smile.

“…Ah’m Dwight Markham.  Pleasure tuh meet yew, miss Rodgers-”

“Anna, please.  Considerin’ what we’ll be doin’ purdy much all of the next few months-”

“Months?  Ah thought… well, ah thought misteh Bayle said ‘is idea were jus’ fer one film…”, Dwight said, though he could guess the answer even before his future co-star gave it.

“Yeah, well, it’s a purdy big film, an’ he’s a purdy  _partic’lar_  director…  We’re probably gon’ have tuh do multiple takes’a  _everything_  from the openin’ scene tuh the sex.  An’ yew best believe there’s a lot ‘f tha’ in the film. Yeh read through the script?”

“Y-yeah-”, Dwight stammered, only to get interrupted by Anna again.

“There’s two sex scenes that ain’t us, three scenes’a yew jerkin’ off - or wait, four, then ‘bout three sex scenes we git tuhgether.  If’n the film takes off, we’re gittin’ other films jus’ like it, maybe even follow-ups or an honest-tuh-gawd  _series_ … an’ even if’n it ain’t work out that well, it ain’t ‘is only project.  He has tuh keep the bosses up in HQ happy, so he has tuh throw in some other material ‘s well - ‘spect yeh’ll be playin’ a college student or somethin’, too…”

“Yeah, nuthin’ like a li’l role-playin’ tuh keep things fresh…”, Dwight said, rolling his eyes.  It was only then, when he happened to glance around the room, that he saw what had eluded him at first sight.  Metal, tools and contraptions in various states of progress lined the walls and the floor, and a large workbench stood against the furthest wall.  A curtain hung across the room, probably for keeping her hobby safe from prying eyes when she freshened up in between shooting sessions, but apart from that it was  _everywhere_ around her in this, her sanctum in the world they chose to make their living in.  “…Oh, wow, this ‘s more than yer dressin’ room, this… ‘s this yer workplace, too?”

“Yeah, ah’m… well, yew know what they say ‘bout not bringin’ yer work home an’ not bringin’ yer home life tuh work?  Ah kind ‘f wanna  _shoot_ whoever said tha’.  It’s… ‘s easier fer me tuh work on ‘em _here,_ in between projects.”  She didn’t speak further, but Dwight could easily imagine that she lived in a small apartment, just like him, with no room for a hobby of this magnitude and devotion.  But the work she’d done on some of the items that stood on the shelves… the welding, the soldering, the patience and the sheer talent she had for it stood out.  He only became aware that he’d spoken his thoughts when he looked at her to see an utterly stunned look on her face.  “…Ah… didn’t know yeh took an int’rest-”

“‘m Sorry, Anna, ah don’t mean t’upset yeh-”, he quickly defended, but she took three steps towards him and kissed the remainder of his apology from his lips.  And when he tentatively put a hand on her upper arm, she slid her hand over his arm and his shoulder to tangle in his hair.  All in all, Dwight felt that same mixture of apprehension and giddiness that he’d felt before, when they’d been introduced, and he went with it, kissing her back happily but only moving when she did.  The half-step back they took seemed both painful and necessary, something that only further confused him.  “…Yew, uh…”

“Dwight, from the moment ah saw yeh jus’ now, ah jus’  _had_ tuh kiss yeh, ‘specially now that ah figured out yew are just ‘s mechanically inclined as ah am.  Yeh’re so purfect a guy… ah  _had_ tuh git a li’l taste.  Even… even if’n it may end up costin’ me.”

“Costin’ yeh?  Ah… ah don’t understand, Anna, dahlin’-”, Dwight started, only to fall quiet when she put a finger lightly across his lips and then looked him in the eye.

“Let me explain, Dwight, luv.  Yeh see, ah got a strategy fer doin’ this ‘ere job without losin’ mah head.  Ah don’t like sleepin’ with strangers, an’ ah don’t like things bein’ awkward on set. So ah usually treat mah future co-stars tuh lunch, or coffee, or even dinner.  Git friendly with ‘em, git t’know ‘em.  See the man behind the star a li’l.  That way, if’n we get along… it’s easier on set.  The guys treat me a li’l more proper - like, they ask me how ah’m doin’ after a particularly rough scene, or they offer me a drink’a water on hot days… yew know, that kind ‘f thing.  But yew… Dwight, yeh’re diff’rent.  Yew wouldn’t let me treat yew - in fact, yew would end up treatin’  _me_ \- an’ yet yeh still would treat me like ah’m a gawdess on set.”

“Yeh can still treat me tuh dinner, if’n that’s whut’s botherin’ yeh, Anna!”, Dwight said quickly, putting a hand on her arm again, and she sighed.

“Yew kin bet we’re havin’ dinner t’gether, Dwight, darlin’, don’t even matter who’s payin’ the damn bill… but dinner ain’t th’only thing ah want us t’have, sweetheart.”

“Whut else?”, he asked, and she grinned somewhat shyly - it was the first sign of insecurity he’d seen on her, and it made him want to reach out and reassure her, even though he didn’t even know what made her apprehensive.

“Ah, uh, kind’f wanna have a li’l  _test run_ with’cha now, dahlin’.”  Dwight blinked, looking her over in confusion. Surely she didn’t mean what he thought she meant… and surely he wasn’t  _happily considering_ it as well…  He hadn’t even  _looked_ at women like that before!  “…Aw,  _Dwight_ , luv, yew are the most innocent guy ah had the pleasure’a meetin’ on this ‘ere job - ah’m sayin’ that ah don’t want t’morrah bein’ the first time we git intimate with each other, hun.”, Anna elaborated, mistaking his confusion for non-understanding, causing him to hastily shake his head.

“A-ah know, Anna, an’… well, maybe that ain’t a real bad idea b-but maybe it ain’t a real  _good_ idea neither, whu-whut if’n ah can’t… ah mean, ah ain’t never… yeh’re definitely the first girl ah… w-well, what if’n ah  _suck_ at it?”

“All the more reason fer us tuh have a li’l test run, dahlin’.”, she said, pulling him along towards the sofa and then firmly pushing him down onto it, settling next to him.  “…T’morrow, yeh’re gon’ have tuh be a li’l more bold-”, she offered, and Dwight rolled his eyes.

“Reckon Clint kin handle tha’.  The director says how he wants it an’ ah make it happen.”, he admitted, suddenly feeling skittish. His fingertips felt like they were on fire all of a sudden, and when he gently placed an arm around Anna’s shoulders and she leaned closer, her face close enough for him to feel her breath, his  _entire body_ caught the spark.  “Anna, i-if’n we do this, ah think… ah think ah might forget it’s jus’ a pretend t’morrah…”

“…Me too.  But ah  _want_ this, Dwight, ah want  _yew_ …”, Anna admitted before kissing him again, deeply and passionately this time, and Dwight couldn’t reason anymore.  The fire inside of him roared and burned and his mind grew blank and detached while his body acted on autopilot, gathering her closer to him and pressing her down onto the sofa.  “…Ah,  _Dwight_ , this ‘s plenty bold… mm, don’t yew stop now…”, she said with a luxuriating grin clear in her words, which got Dwight to kiss her again and then kiss her cheek, her earlobe, and then her neck, nipping at her skin with increasing eagerness and need.  It was almost  _shameful_ , the way he needed her, the way he was growing painfully and mind-numbingly aroused by her - shameful and surprising, since he’d never even looked twice at any woman. But Anna wasn’t just any woman, Anna was…

“…All them other women are jus’… purdy li’l dolls… ahh, but  _yew_ , Anna, yew are  _alive_ an’  _on fire_ …”, he answered his own wonder out loud, muttering the words just loud enough for her to hear them as well in between eager nips at her skin: his kisses had migrated to her clavicle now, and he was faintly aware of the slow press of his groin against her leg and her pressing back against him readily.  “Awh, Anna, darlin’, yew… yew are gon’ be mah first, a-an’  _ah swear_ yeh’re gon’ be th’ _only_ woman to ever git me like this… if’n other ladies do come ‘long, they’re gittin’ Clint, sure… but yew git  _me_  now… only me…”

“ _Dwight, sugar…_ ”, she moaned, unbuttoning her blouse and then slowly undoing the buttons on his shirt in turn as he kissed lower.  So far, there was nothing unfamiliar and awkward about their making-out.  Men liked their nipples tweaked, licked and sucked just as much as women did - but he knew that women liked their entire breasts fondled as well, so he gently groped the soft flesh and got rewarded by a loud gasp and a very deliberate press of Anna’s leg against his groin, which in turn got him to groan.

“Awh  _hell_ , Anna… ‘m real glad ah’m doin’ yew right so far-”

“Y-you’re gon’ do me  _so right_ , Dwight, sugar… mmm, baby, yer lips feel so  _shamefully right_ on me, ah’m gon’ want yew t’use ‘em real well later fer eatin’ me out-”, she answered, moaning as he gently nipped at the delicate skin of her cleavage before gently licking her areola, painstakingly slowly, before latching on to her nipple and suckling it.  “O-oh,  _lord_ , Dwight…!”, she crooned, her hand tangling in his hair and holding him in place, encouraging him to try for a little more fire.  His licks got rougher, his nips harder, until she had at least five bright red marks on her right breast and he migrated his attention to her left, keeping his ministrations light.

“Yew oughta git mah shirt off me, ah reckon.”, he said; just when she complied, moving her hand to the buttons of his shirt again, of which only three were still not undone, he applied a good amount of suction on her left nipple.  As a result, not only did Anna’s hands falter completely, she  _arched her back off the sofa_ and pushed her bosom right against his face with a loud accompanying curse.

“ _Jesus Chriiiist, sugar…_ oh… oh lord, y-yew don’t want me ready, yeh want me t’ _wet mahself_ ‘fore yeh git started on me…”

“Mmm, figure ah kin git yeh messy ‘s much as ah want as long as ah clean y’up right an’ proper afterwards.”, Dwight admitted, relinquishing the hold his lips had on her sensitive flesh in favor of answering, though he still felt in the mood to playfully tease her.  When she got her fingers to cooperate again and moved on to undo the penultimate button on his shirt, he licked over the mark he’d just left, causing a heated moan from the woman underneath him.

“ _Dwight,_ d-dahlin’, play nice-”

“Ah thought yeh liked me bein’ a li’l bold.”, he said, winking down at her and getting rewarded with the kind of smile he resolved to get from her more often: it was a warm, unwavering smile that showed desire just as much as it showed affection.  The perfect complement to her next words.

“ _Yew_ , misteh Dwight Markham, are a real  _charmer…_ so move that silver tongue’a yers a li’l lower, sugar, give me a  _real_ taste’a ‘bold’.”  Dwight chuckled, but on the inside he felt a little apprehensive.  So far he’d been on familiar grounds - kissing her and caressing her was no different from kissing and caressing any man he’d been with, both professionally and privately, but a woman’s privates were a far cry from a man’s, and her pleasure so different from his… and all he had to go on was Teresa’s sex advice, which she’d shared with him for  _professional_ use, so he’d get by in his new role…  But would it be any good here, and now, with Anna writhing underneath him trying to get her panties off without them having to move, with her expecting him to excel?  However, when he looked down at Anna, she just happened to look up at him and their eyes met, and in an instant he knew that he’d be fine.  She pressed herself up just as he swooped down, sharing a heated but above all warm kiss that had them both breathless as they parted, and which had also given her the opportunity to gently move her legs a little to allow her to take one leg out of her panties, after which it was a simple matter of him pulling them all the way off and kissing his way up her leg to her uncovered privates.  He’d never really considered it, but they really  _did_ look like lips - a little dark and with the tiniest bit of moisture beading here and there - and before he even knew what he was doing, he pressed his own lips to her labia gently, getting rewarded with a shaky exhale from his lover.

“Awh, Dwight… sugar, yer lips feel  _so fine_  down there…” He grinned and looked her over again, seeing that the light touch from his lips had caused her labia to part just a little, showing that the skin that was hidden underneath was a lighter, rosier pink.

“Mm, Anna, yew look so  _exquisite_ , darlin’… yeh look like yew’d taste like candy…”, he admitted, licking his lips a little before allowing just the tip of his tongue to glide softly over the velvety skin of her nethers, eliciting a soft ‘ohh’ of mingled pleasure and surprise from the woman while her hands moved down to tangle in his hair.  Licking his lips again, spreading the taste of her over them, he admitted: “…an’ yeh taste like sweetbread, sugar…”

“Oh, Dwight,  _Dwight_ , darlin’…  Yer tongue… ahh, gawd damn it, don’t  _tease_ me, baby…”, Anna replied, pressing down on his head gently but decisively in an attempt to spur him on; he grinned and applied his tongue in earnest, licking over her inner labia and then, when she moaned inarticulately again, deciding to see whether dipping his tongue inside of her had the same effect.  “ _Ahh… ahh baby… gawd daaaaamn…_ ”, she softly cried out, her body shivering lightly underneath him.  He could feel the muscles of her stomach clenching and unclenching just a little and he redoubled his efforts, pressing his tongue inside of her more insistently.  Yet all too soon, she groaned and looked down at him.

“D-dwight, Dwight, wait, sugar… ahh,  _gawd_ … m-mah-”  It was a merit of Teresa’s ‘teachings’ that he knew what she wanted to say without her actually voicing it: his Hispanic friend had told him that pleasuring a woman and pleasuring a man, though it  _seemed_ like they were exact opposites, still had a lot in common.  A man’s length was like a woman’s vagina and labia, and both a man’s genitals and a woman’s had one spot much more sensitive than any other.  Anna was practically begging for Dwight to pay attention to her clitoris, so Dwight felt secure that, if he’d apply his tongue and his lips there, he’d bring her off in a matter of heartbeats.  Closing his lips around the somewhat exposed point where her labia joined and then gently, lightly applying suction, Dwight learnt he wasn’t wrong in the slightest: Anna nearly jumped up from the sofa’s surface, her back arching off it and her hands digging in the expensive upholstery as she nearly  _sang_ out her delight for the world to hear.  “ _Dwiiiight, Dwi-i-ight, oh GAWD Dwiiiiight!_ ”  Yet even as she had a spectacular, mindblowing release, Dwight didn’t stop lavishing attention to that sweet spot, and as soon as she’d seemingly caught her breath it hitched again and she  _spasmed_ in his hold, moaning even more loudly than before.  “Oh  _Dwight, g-gaaaaawd, yew-ah-ahh-ah-D-dwi-i-i-ight… f-fuckin’…_ ahhh shiiiit… l-let…  _ohh_ , oh  _Chriiiist, Dwight_ …”  He moaned around her and then found himself pushed roughly away from her privates before being pulled up for a sloppy, heated kiss that he indulged in effortlessly.  When they parted - for air or because she wanted her own turn at pleasuring him, he didn’t know and he didn’t care - he groaned as she gently pushed him down on the sofa, kissing from his lips to his neck, leaving a couple of lovebites in her trail just as he’d left on her before.

“Oh J-jesus, Anna… y-yew look like an angel when yeh come-”, he admitted; Anna’s response was to shudder again.

“Ah, Dwight, yeh’re such an angel yerself… f-feels like a real  _sin_ t-tuh corrupt yeh, mah hawt angel…”  Then, she dragged her hands down his stomach to his pants, unbuttoning them and undoing his fly before snaking a hand inside and palming his erection through his underwear while she added with the most  _devilish_ grin: “…but ah’ll bet yew look  _purfect_ when ah suck y’off…”

“O-oh gawd, Anna…”, he moaned, resisting the urge to thrust his hips upward and press his length against her touch - but she seemed to see right through him and stroked him lightly again, at which point resisting seemed futile and he lost the battle.  “… _Ahh,_ sugar… y-yew sure?”

“Ah watched yer vids, yew don’t go bareback - promise tuh swallow if’n  _yew_ promise tuh let me ride yeh like a prize mustang-”

“Yew kin do that next time, darlin’, ah  _gotta_ take yeh right ‘n proper, Anna, sugar.”, he said, grinning when she shrugged and kissed further down while pushing the remainder of his clothing off him.  The prospect of seeing her wrap those sweet lips around his manhood had him groan softly, and she chuckled, looking up at him pseudo-innocently.

“Yew, uh,  _wanted somethin’_ , dahlin’?”

“Awh, yew know what ah want, Anna… c’mon, sugar, don’t yew go teasin’ me now…”

“Revenge is a bitch, sweetheart.”, she said before stroking his liberated length and drawing a louder moan from him.  “…An’  _yew_ are a real  _fine_ specimen, Dwight… all natural?”, she asked, prompting Dwight to roll his eyes.

“Hell, they  _s’gested it_ , but ah didn’t want none’a that.  Ah like mah body the way the good Lord made it t’be-”

“Heh, me too.  An’ yeh got nothin’ tuh improve here, sweetheart… my, how yeh’re gon’ fit all’a that intuh me-” Now Dwight was the one to chuckle and look down at her, his hand idly petting her cheek and toying with a stray lock of hair that fell down against it.

“Oh,  _ah_ watched  _yew_ in yer vids too, mah lady, an’ yeh took on men bigger ‘n me like it were no problem, ah’ll bet yeh’re gon’ be able tuh handle me jus’  _fiiiiiine_ -ahhh!” His words ended with a loud gasp as Anna seemed to take his teasing as the signal to progress: her lips felt blazing hot against his erection, so much so that he felt his nethers would combust any second.  “ _Ah lord… ahh, gaaaawd, Anna…_ a-ah thought yeh’d be good, but…  _oh dahlin’, dahlin’…_ y-yeh’re like a li’l piece of paradise…”  If he were on the job, his first instinct would be to thrust into the welcoming warmth of her mouth; but this wasn’t the job, this was… well, it was more, oh so much more than just another film, just another paycheck: this was a woman that laughed lightly at his teasing and that had cried out his name at the height of her need just minutes before.  This was the woman that had gotten him hard and eager with just a wink, a sultry word and a heated kiss.  This was…   _“Awh Christ, this ‘s fuckin’ heaven…_ ”, he admitted, the slur passing his lips without him even realizing it until Anna pulled off him to reply quickly and heatedly.

“Mmmno, dahlin’, fuckin’ heaven would be you spreadin’ mah legs an’ fuckin’ me ‘till ah saw stars… this is jus’  _warm-up_ …”  She grinned even as she went down on him again, Dwight could feel it, and he had to admit her remark was true. Heaven was more than just her mouth.  Heaven would be to have her,  _really have her_.  So he pulled her off him and level with him again for a fierce kiss before whispering to her warmly.

“Anna, where… where?”

“Right here ain’t good enough for ya?”, she asked, and he shrugged as if he didn’t care, though he hadn’t missed her glancing around the room, eyes fastening on a few pieces of furniture.

“…Right here is plenty good enough fer me, sugar, but fer  _yew_? …Reckon ah know whut yew want, miss Anna Rodgers… yew wanna see mah face when ah fill y’up, don’t yeh?”, he said, slowly moving his hand down to finger her clit yet again, causing her to let out a deep, almost  _sinful_ ‘ohh’ and grind herself against his fingers.  “Yew wanna feel me fuck yeh all slow an’ deep… wanna feel me  _own_ yew like yeh’re mah  _property_ , brand yew with mah lips an’ mah hands an’ mah dick so deep inside’a yeh…”

“Dwight,  _ohh gawd… y-yeah… ah want tha’-_ ”, Anna admitted, and Dwight groaned as he looked around quickly again before deciding that the couch would probably do best anyway.

“C’mon, then, darlin’, git off’a me so ah kin git up.”  She was off him in a heartbeat, allowing him to get up as well, motioning for her to lay back down.  She did so, looking up at him expectantly and with a hunger that resonated inside of him and got him to insinuate himself between her legs and push them apart: one of her legs, she draped over the back of the sofa and the other she let dangle off the edge.  He let his eyes rove over her for a second, taking her looks in, the way she breathed hard and seemed driven right to the edge of sanity with need for him, just as he was for her-

“Dwight, sugar, don’t let me wait fer yeh, dahlin’… ah’m  _n-not patient_ … fuck me like yeh promised-”  Before he even was aware of it himself, Dwight slowly entered her, reveling in the feeling of her body gripping his length like she intended to pull him deeper inside using just her pelvic muscles, and he gripped the armrest of the sofa to steady himself as he found his own breathing speed up to the point where he felt like it might just be the cause of his light-headedness instead of the overwhelming urge to complete himself with this fireball of a woman that was moaning loud enough to alert anyone in the building to what they were doing.  “ _Oh, Dwiiight, D-dwiiight… dahlin’…_ Mmm, fuck, yeh feel so fine inside’a me, sweetheart-  _Oh!  Oh, gawd…!_ ”  Her heated words turned into sharp, fiery gasps as he thrust into her, shallowly at first but then harder and deeper until he felt like he could very well be trying to break her in half on every inward motion.  The sounds she made indicated that she wouldn’t even mind herself getting split in two as long as it kept feeling as good as she did, and her nails dragged down his back and then back up as she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him down into her on every thrust.

“S-shiiit, Anna…  _gawd…_ y-yeh’re jus’ too good, too damn  _d-delicious…_ Ahh, gawd, ‘m feelin’ yeh so well-”, he panted out, looking down at her to find her looking up at him with large, dark eyes that seemed to pull him in deeper.  “ _Awh damn, yeh’re makin’ me wanna just… nnngh… jus’ up an’-_ ”

“Do it, sugar, do me like yew wanna do me, gimme  _all_ yeh got, Dwight, babe…”, she eagerly cut him off, and he gripped the sofa’s armrest a little more tightly as his thrusts into her sped up, relinquishing depth to go hard and fast: it didn’t take more than a few seconds to him for the both of them to pant and moan in time to the rhythm he’d settled in, each sound and each motion spurring them on to give more, give everything.  “ _Dwight, ohh, Dwight, ohh GAWD, s-su-sugaa-a-a-ahhh…_ ”  Anna didn’t give him much warning, but he felt her stop holding back the inevitable rush that she’d built up to and let go with her, ending them up hurtling over the edge together with loud half-cries of each other’s names as they lost it.  Dwight leaned his forehead against Anna’s as his eyes fluttered shut and his hips took on a life of their own, riding through the motions of his lover’s inner muscles squeezing his length and milking him of his seed, and even after they’d both stilled he still didn’t open his eyes.  Only when he started catching his breath again and became aware of having slipped out of her did he first look at her again, his eyes fastening instantly on hers.

“…H-hey there, sugar…”, he said shyly, feeling a blush creep up on his cheeks, and she grinned back at him.

“Howdy, cowboy…  whoo, yeh sure took  _me_ fer a ride…”

“Hope ah, uh, h-hope ah didn’t hurt yeh or nuthin’…”, Dwight stammered, prompting a soft bout of laughter from the woman that instantly wrapped an arm around him, pulling him into a full-bodied hug and kissing his lips sweetly.

“Yew are the sweetest darn man ah ever met, Dwight Markham… don’t yew dare walk on out’f mah life no more, y’hear?”

“No, ma’am.”, he admitted with a grin of his own.  Sure, all of this was new, but it felt right - and ‘right’ was rare in the business they were in.  Then, however, her previous words came back to him and he smiled.  She’d talked about them having dinner together, about treating him - or had she said it didn’t matter? - so having dinner was what they’d do.  “…S-so, uh, we prob’ly should git a li’l freshened up if’n yew wan’ have dinner with me tuhnight.”

“…Why, ain’t yew jus’ a perfect gentleman, Dwight… awright, let’s freshen up an’ git dinner.  ‘Les Roses’ sound good?”, she asked, and he nearly accepted until he remembered that Samantha would be there with a date of her own, and he shook his head.

“Well, it would, but ah think we oughta celebrate our workin’ tuhgether fer the next couple’a months in  _more style_ … so how ‘bout ah call ‘La Vigneron des Anges’-”  Her sharp inhale told him he’d made a winning suggestion, causing him to wink at her and tack on: “Ain’t nuthin’ too fancy fer a fine an’ sophisticated lady such ‘s yew, Anna Rodgers… an’ we don’t wanna git gossip started  _too_ quickly, either, now do we?  ‘s Less paparazzi over in th’other towns.”

“Ah’m all fer tha’… an’ afterwards, ah do believe yew promised this li’l cowgirl a proper goodnight…”, she said - Dwight grinned and nodded.

“Yeah, ah did promise that… but ain’t nothin’ about this li’l cowgirl an’ the goodnight  _she’s_ gittin’ that’s ‘proper’ at all.”  The kiss she gave him was fierce, and he could hardly blame his body for getting fired up again when she moaned as they parted.

“Damn it, Dwight, yew know how tuh get a girl  _extatic_ … ah’m ridin’ the hell outta yeh tuhnight… it’s too bad we need to git freshened up, otherwise yeh could join me in tha’ there shower…”, she said, and Dwight winked at her.

“Well, now, if’n ah make our dinner reservations fer  _seven thirty_ , we still got a li’l time…”

“…Go on an’ do that, cowboy… ah’ll be in there startin’ the shower an’ waitin’ fer yew tuh show me how strong y’are by holdin’ me up…”  The prospect of her body, slick with soap and water, pressed in between himself and the tiled wall of the shower, had his pulse racing like a war drum, and he groaned softly before taking out his cellphone and dialling the number with shaking hands.

 

“Dwight?”  The next morning, as he got out of his car, Dwight heard his name called from behind him and he turned around just in time to be pulled into a _tight_ hug.  “Gracias a Dios que por fin he situado!  You didn’t come home last night!  I was  _worried_! I called Raphy and he said he hadn’t seen you, and I called Lyndon who said you were with Ivana but I didn’t know who he meant, and then Sammy said it’d probably be Ivana Yarod but she wasn’t at the studio anymore and-”

“Reese,  _relax_ , girl!”, Dwight gently admonished her, disentangling himself from her gently to see that his roommate and best friend wasn’t alone.  Sam stood next to her, as did Eileen. “Sam, Ail’, ‘s nice’a y’all tuh worry about me, but ah… ah left yeh a message, didn’t yeh see it?  The note on the fridge?”

“I found it, but I didn’t know what it meant either, Dwight, you dolt - next time, maybe leave the name of the  _restaurant_  so we won’t feckin’ panic?”, Eileen said, though she looked more amused than upset, something that was true for Sam as well.  “…So, I take it you spent the night at Ivana Yarod’s apartment - and I take it that shit-eating grin means you  _didn’t_ spend it crashed out on her couch but safely in her bed…”, she said, alerting Dwight to the fact that he’d grinned without even knowing he did so. Teresa and Sam caught on as well by then.

“You mean… oh _, Dwight_ , you  _lucky sodding bastard!_ And here you were, yesterday, telling me not to get into anything I didn’t want to get into-”

“Oh, believe me, ah didn’t git intuh anythin’  _ah_ didn’t wanna git intuh neither, Sam, girl.  …Ivana… _Anna_ … she’s… ah dunno how to explain it, but she… it feels real grand.  Like, more ‘n physically, ah mean.  We kissed an’ we fucked, sure, but we also talked an’ slept tuhgether an’ ate breakfast t’gether… a-an’ when ah left jus’ now, she… she kissed me on mah cheek an’ it felt like angels caressed mah face with down.”

“ _God_ , that’s mushy.”, Eileen said, prompting Teresa to snort and put a hand on Dwight’s arm.

“Dwight, estás seguro de esto, pasa con ella? Quiero decir, usted era bastante indeciso sobre toda ella ayer … todos de la misma solo cambió cuando la conociste?  Are you  _sure_  that this is… like the connection me and Eileen had?”, she asked, and Dwight considered that for a second.  Teresa and Eileen had met just like he and Anna had: both having been asked to do a film together, both saying yes but feeling awkward, both agreeing to have lunch together before the start of filming… and how that lunch ended them up in bed together…  Then, however, he shook his head firmly.

“Ah’m sure.  Ah mean, Ivana confessed tuh me las’ night over dinner that she  _asked_ misteh Bayle fer me specifically - turns out she were followin’ mah films fer a while now.  A-an’ if’n ah’m honest, ah… kind’f took notice of her ‘fore all’a this started, too.  Ah mean, mah previous-tuh-last project, y’know?”

“Oh, the one with Gunner Fuck-em-deep?”, Eileen said quasi-mindlessly, causing Teresa to snort disapprovingly and Sam, somehow, to also react indignantly.

“Gunner Deep - and mind what you say about him, he’s not a bad guy.  Both Gabriel  _and_ Dwight seem to like him-”

“Yeah, well, he’s a stand-up guy an’ he’s good at whut he does.  An’ apparently he praised me tuh th’high heavens tuh Anna an’ misteh Bayle.”, Dwight said, rolling his eyes as he took a look at Sam’s blushing face, which was all the incentive he needed to change the subject.  “…Ah’m not an expert by far ‘s far as sleepless nights go-”

“I’ll bet you are  _now_ though.”, Eileen once again commented offhandedly, but Dwight ignored her for the time being.

“-but ah kin tell  _yew_ ain’t got a lot ‘f sleep neither. Did yew leave any energy in ‘im fer yer shooting sessions of t’day?”, he asked, and Sam laughed nervously.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Dwight Markham.” Unfortunately, Dwight had become good at reading her, and so had his roommate and her girlfriend: instantly, all three of them turned to the woman in varying degrees of disbelief.

“You didn’t…  When I called you  _swore_ you were at your apartment!”, Teresa said, and Sam spluttered.

“I w- I was, I just-”

“She just wasn’t  _alone_ at her apartment - oh, Samantha, you she-devil, you!  I know Dante, he’s strictly men as they go-”

“Must be something in the air, then, because I could’ve sworn Dwight wasn’t interested in women either.  Or maybe just not interested in any of the women he’s met so far.”, Teresa said, tacking on the addition after a second’s hesitation, looking Dwight over.  “…Well, if you’re happy, the both of you, that’s all that matters.  Next time, though,  _call me_  to tell me you’ll be out all night, Dwight.”

“W-well, that would’a been kind ‘f hard, we were a might  _preoccupied_ , Anna an’ me-”, Dwight tried to save himself, only for Eileen to make things infinitely worse, as usual.

“You had your hands and your mouth free while she was blowing you, genius - I think Reese would’ve even let your moans slide just to be reassured that you weren’t being violated.”

“Awh,  _Eileen_ , don’t y’ever go sayin’ s-stuff like tha’ ‘round me!”, Dwight loudly complained, only for Eileen to make a rude hand gesture and then grin as Anna’s car pulled up into the parking lot.

“Your lady awaits, sir Fucked-a-lot, better not keep her waiting for ya…”

“Ah swear,  _Ailreann Raghaile_ , ah’m gon’ lay yew out if’n yeh use tha’ there smart mouth’a yers fer anythin’ else tuhday other ‘n eat out Reese!”, Dwight responded, though he didn’t await the others’ reply, running to Anna the next second.  She raised an eyebrow but he quickly explained the situation to her: “…Yeah, uh, mah friends - fer ‘s far as a feller kin have friends in this ‘ere business.  Teresa - that’s the Spanish lady - is mah roommate, we share an apartment.”

“Do yeh now?”, Anna said, sounding like she might want to pull Teresa’s hair out one by one, causing Dwight to hastily tack on a little elaboration.

“…An’ Eileen, she’s the red-haired one next t’her, with the freckly skin, she’s her girlfriend.”

“Oh, is she now?”, Anna added, sounding relieved, causing Dwight to nod.

“Yeah, uh, me an’ Reese used t’work on the same dead-end job back in Texas until she got an offer tuh relocate here an’, uh, join th’industry.  She’s as lesbian ‘s they come.  Ain’t never looked at a man, an’ she certainly don’t look at  _me_  ‘part from as a good friend.”  He then gently reached for Anna’s hand and spoke softly: “…Anyway, ah weren’t lyin’ yestehday. Any other girl lookin’ fer a lay might git  _Clint_ , sugar, but yew’s th’ only one that’s ever gonna git  _Dwight_ tha’ way.  …Gawd, ah’m not even gon’ have any problems when misteh Bayle ‘spects us tuh go… ah sure hope ah don’t spoil it all by moanin’  _yer_ name instead’a yer character’s…”

“Yew would spoil his take, dahlin’, but yeh sure wouldn’t spoil  _mah_ day.”, Anna said, and Dwight found his pulse quicken, so much so that he almost forgot to wave to his friends as he walked off.

 

*1 YEAR LATER*

 

“Heh, here’s tuh yew an’ Gabriel officially settin’ up fer tyin’ the knot!”, Dwight said, giving Sam a brief hug only to return his arm securely around Anna’s waist while the rest of the attending people - no more than seven or eight of them - saluted the couple by raising their glasses into the air.  Then, however, Dwight raised his glass again: “An’, uh, well, here’s tuh the best thing t’ever happen tuh me in mah life, the lovely Anna Rodgers-”

“Oh, it’s been a year for you two as well, hasn’t it?”, Sam said, to which Gabriel reacted with the warmth and stunningly brutal honesty Dwight had come to appreciate in him.

“Ouais, I think they started bangin’ off-camera around a year ago as well - well, mon ami, nothing left to do but marry her.  You know you gotta, she’s the most decent girl you’ll ever land. …Unless you wanna let someone else walk on by an’ steal her, I hear Jay’s still in the market-”

“Jarrod don’t even like her!”, Dwight protested, though he was unable to stop himself from pulling Anna just a little closer to him, which she answered by wrapping her own arm around his shoulders and pressing her lips to his cheek before speaking her own protest.

“Jarrod can’t handle this ‘ere Texas tootsie - takes a smart Texas-bred cowboy tuh take on a girl like me.”

“ _Jarrod_  is  _right here_ , amiga y amigo, and he knows better than to try and take on your crazy asses.  Besides, I’m more than happy with my new living arrangements.  No more crazy chicas y chicos for me!”, he boasted, and Dwight snorted, though he didn’t speak about it.  Everyone in their present company knew that Jarrod was going to live with Sam and Gabriel in the house they bought together, and that the three of them had something going on, something that was borderline crazy.  Yet it was, surprisingly, Anna that spoke tactfully to direct the subject away from Jarrod again and to the matter at hand.

“Well, ah’m sure that, if’n Dwight ever gits th’idea tuh make me his ferever, he’d do somethin’ as romantic as Gabriel did t’propose tuh yew…”  Gabriel blushed and drank his champagne, clearly either mollified by Anna’s compliment or slightly embarrassed because it hadn’t been quite as romantic as Sam had portrayed it.  Being proposed to on a picknick with their family  _did_ feel like a little bit of a stretch, but Dwight didn’t feel like it was his place to know the particulars if they didn’t want to tell him.  “…So, when are yew plannin’ the weddin’, Sam, Gabriel?”

“We were thinking about next autumn, that ought to be long enough for us to make all of the arrangements.  Also, let’s not forget we still need to move into our new house, and that’ll take some time and arranging as well.”

“Don’t forget the final film we need to do…”, Gabriel said, and Sam nodded, blushing.

“I swear I won’t forget.  …Yeah, uh, so the ‘Chronicles of Three Lovers’ are set to end with, uh, with _four_.”

“Four, huh?”, Teresa asked, while Eileen rolled her eyes and Dwight nearly choked on his champagne.

“Holy mother’a mercy, they ‘spect yew, Gabriel an’ Jarrod - well, ah mean, they ‘spect  _Ashley, Dante an’ Gunner_ tuh git down with someone else?”

“Yes, because apparently threesome sex in the most ridiculous circumstances isn’t enough beauty to end the series with, they want to end it in… well, I can’t believe they’d ever use the word ‘style’ for a foursome, but there you have it.”  The others were quiet, and Eileen was the first to speak up.

“…Who with, then?”

“Aisa Hawney.”

“Aisa?  Oh, she’s okay, I worked with her a couple of times. She, uh, she usually does more hardcore stuff, works with Deej a lot. Deej as in DeeJay DeMarco.”, Teresa said, rolling her eyes when no one but Gabriel and Eileen showed any signs of recognition, leaving it to the tallest of their company of friends to explain.

“DeeJay, well, she-”

“She?”, Anna asked, prompting a nod from Gabriel.

“Ouais,  _she_.  Deej is short for Donna Joanne.  She’s a director.  Life partner of Kevin Bayle - and just like ol’ Kev’, she started out acting.  She, uh… I acted with her a couple of times, she’s…”  Dwight looked at Gabriel in confusion at the man’s hesitation, only to find him blush and look lost for words. “Merde, comment ce dire?”

“Donna Joanne is a hermaphrodite.”, Eileen was quick to say in his stead, looking  _disgruntled_ for some reason: that reason became clear the next second.  “She got passed off as a shemale, like she was  _altered_ to be that way… but she was born with two sets of genitalia, an’ they both work.  Dantan, you’re such a feckin’ wuss-”

“Vas t’faire foutre - I happen to  _appreciate_ DeeJay, she’s a rough fuck any way ya turn her.”

“I did not want to know that about you, damn it!”, Eileen complained, though she turned to Dwight again the next second: “…But she  _is_ pretty lively.  Gabriel’s not the only one havin’ worked with her.  I did a project with her, too, her last project as a matter of fact.  It’s when she met Kevin Bayle. She’s… ambivalent, which probably explains the kinds of videos she directs a  _lot_ better than anything or anyone else does.”

“Oui… DeeJay is… she does kink an’ fetish stuff.  Bondage, pet play, breath control, consentplay… that means rape fantasies.”, Gabriel clarified with a tone that indicated that he was  _definitely_ not into that, something that Dwight wholeheartedly agreed with.

“Ugh, don’t sound like mah kind ‘f director.”, he admitted, but Eileen shook her head.

“Hey, she doesn’t  _purely_ do the weird stuff like that! That’s what I was trying to say!  She also does… well, the exact opposite.  Fluffy stuff.  Female-oriented porn.  How-to’s and stuff like that.  And she’s  _huge_ on aftercare, both in her hard and her mellow stuff.  She also expects all of her actors to be on first-name basis and to treat each other well.  I worked with her three times, once co-starring with her and then twice to kickstart her career…”

“Ya did S an’ M?”, Anna asked, sounding disbelieving, but Eileen shook her head.

“I was a domme in one of her consentplay vids, and… well, I co-starred with  _Kevin Bayle_ in her first how-to video.  Think it was called ‘The Art Of Playtime’.”

“Yew… co-starred with Kevin?”, Dwight asked, looking at Eileen and trying to imagine her laying in a bed or on a sofa, moaning gently while Kevin Bayle caressed her.  The sight seemed so impossible that he shook his head.  “…Naw…”

“I  _did_ , and it was okay, thanks very much!  Kevin’s really considerate!  He said it’s a shame I don’t do straight porn more because I’m actually quite attractive!”, Eileen bristled: Teresa quickly calmed her down with a few whispered words, allowing Gabriel to speak up as well.

“Well, she asked me to star in her vids, too, but I said I ain’t into the hard stuff an’ I’m too rough around the edges for the soft stuff.  …She’s lookin’ for stars for new projects now, though, tried to rope me in _again_  but I didn’t take her up on the offer.  Maybe something for you, Dwight-”  It was said teasingly, and Dwight supposed it was a hallmark of their somewhat distant friendship that he felt comfortable enough with it to laugh instead of feel offended or clamming up.

“Heh, ah think ah’m gon’ pass that up…  ‘sides, ah’ve got mah hands full pleasin’ Anna ‘ere fer the next few months…” Then, his cellphone rang, and Dwight sighed.  “‘Scuse me fer a sec, ‘s mah agent…”  Flipping his phone open, he answered the call as he walked off.  “…Yeah, Lyndon?”

“ _Dwoight, mate, yeh struck gold this time!  Ah’ve got a new offer for yeh from Kevin Bayle!”_

“Well, why are  _yew_ callin’ me?  Ah’m seein’ Kevin in ‘is office t’morrah-”, Dwight started, only for Lyndon to interrupt him quickly.

“ _The offer isn’t for a film he’s doirectin’, Dwoight, it’s for a film by his partner, Donna… Donna D’Marco?”_ Suddenly, Dwight felt like his heart had stopped.  Looking over to the others, who were in pleasant conversation, he felt panic rise in his chest like wildfire.  Lyndon, however, didn’t seem to sense his unease, as the man continued:  _“Oi have t’say, mate, it’s a foine offer.  The other star handpicked yeh, said it had to be you starrin’ with ‘em or no one at all!  Not t’mention you’ll get paid_ twoice  _whot yeh’re earning now!  An’ don’t worry, Dwoight, I asked if it’s for anything yeh wouldn’t feel comfortable doin’, mate, an’ Kevin Bayle promised it wosn’t for anything loike that.  …So yeh’re meeting up with Donna D’Marco in Kevin’s office in half an hour, ‘s that ollroight?”_ Dwight tried to bring himself to answer but could only manage a soft exhale that his manager seemed to take like an admission.   _“Roight! Oi’ll see yeh there then, Dwoight!”_

“…Dwight?  You, uh, you look like you’ve seen a ghost…” Sam came walking up to him, pulling him gently off to the side of their little gathering, out of sight of the others.  “Did Lyndon upset you?”

“He… ah… mah next job offer ‘s from DeeJay DeMarco, as in ‘hardcore videos’ DeeJay DeMarco… a-an’ ah can’t back outta this offer-”

“How so?”, Sam asked, putting a hand on his arm: it was that gentle gesture that reminded Dwight that Sam was one of his oldest friends apart from Teresa and Raphael, and he sighed before speaking.

“Kevin Bayle okayed it, ‘parently, said it wouldn’t be nuthin’ ah wouldn’t feel comf’table doin’, an’ mah future co-star said they wanted me or no one at all… a-an’ they’re payin’  _double’_ a what Kevin’s payin’ me now, a-an’ whut with me savin’ up fer… uh, f-fer an apartment fer me an’ Anna, s-so ah can’t say no tuh such a generous offer, even if’n ah’m feelin’ gawd-awful an’ terrified-”

“Look, Dwight… you remember before you met Anna?  How you were terrified of meeting her?  How you were spooked about doing straight porn for the first time in your life?”

“Y-yeah…”, Dwight said, already calming down a great deal at the thought.

“And do you remember how you felt when you started this job?  How you felt when you met  _me_ after a particularly rough shooting day and started ranting to me even though you didn’t know me?”

“Heh, yeah, ah do r’member that.”, Dwight admitted, exhaling a sigh and patting his friend on the arm.  “…Yeh’re right.  Ah’m prob’ly makin’ too big a deal ‘bout this - an’ it ain’t like ah got special claims on Anna.”

“You and her both did your own side projects during the past year, didn’t you?”, she asked, and Dwight nodded.

“Yeah, we, uh… well, she did a vid with tha’ younger guy, uh, Philip?  Yeah, ah think ‘is name were Philip.  An’ me, ah did tha’ video with Gunner - uh, Jarrod, ah mean - called ‘Table Turner’-”

“Oh, I think Gabriel and I  _watched_ that one.  Of course Gabriel and I  _know_ Jarrod  _intimately_  but it was still, uh…  _interesting_ , I must say, to see you overpower him. Gabriel told me you’re a power bottom-”

“Gabriel don’t know.  Yeh should ask Jarrod,  _he’s_ worked with me, yer fiancé ain’t.  An’ ah… don’t consider mahself or Clint a power bottom.  Ah jus’… do whut the director says. If’n that is ‘fuck ‘im sore’, then hell, ah’m puttin’ mah foot on the table an’ goin’ deep.  Ah remember Jarrod sayin’ he likes that-”

“Yeah, we know.”, Sam said, blushing when Dwight laughed softly.

“Whut’s all’a this ‘ _we_ ’ yeh’re talkin’ about, Suhmantha Tennant, yew peg ‘im with a foot-long ‘r somethin’?” Then, when Sam didn’t comment, and he looked at his watch again, Dwight sighed.  “…Ah’d best git goin’.  Lyn’ said half an hour.  Lemme jus’ go say goodbye tuh the guys an’ girls an’ give mah honey some sugar-”

“You know, those southern expressions, I’ll never get used to them.  Dell - you remember Dell, right?  Frank Stone?  The guy that told you on your first project ‘at least yer hung’, the guy that  _insisted_ on trying to set you up with his second cousin until you pretended to be together with me?  Well, he’s retired now, got offered a job in post-production.  I still run across him once or twice a week.  Anyways, Dell, he’s always using those Texan idioms like that, too - ‘Hey there, sweetheart, give an ol’ man some sugar’.  The first time he said it, Gabriel nearly punched his lights out!”, Sam said as they walked back to the site of their little party, announcing loudly to the people there: “…Everybody, bad news, Dwight just got called into a meeting with his agent and a director for a  _possible_ new project, so he has to leave.” Protest sounded from the others, especially Teresa and Jarrod, but it was Anna that spoke when the others quieted down again.

“…Yew really got tuh go?”

“Yeah, they’re offerin’ me double pay, an’ ah need tuh put mahself out there a li’l again.  ‘Sides, Kevin okayed ‘is offer, too-”

“He did?”, Anna asked, clearly dumbfounded, reinforcing Dwight’s apprehension a little again, but he powered through it, smiling.

“Yeah, an’ that means it’s a real good deal.  …Ah’ll tell yeh all the partic’lars tuhnight, sugar, over dinner.  Ah’m buyin’-”

“Only if y’accept tha’ there offer, Dwight - remember, yeh promised tuh save yer money so we kin buy ourselves a nice li’l home ‘f our own jus’ like Sam an’ Gabriel did!”, she said, pulling him in for a kiss and ignoring the uproar that tidbit of information caused in the others.  “Behave, luv, an’ ah’m givin’ yew a real treat when yeh git at mah place…”, she whispered seductively to him, causing Dwight to wink at her and start texting her as he walked to Kevin Bayle’s office, telling her that she’d better wear old clothes and saucy lingerie for him that night because he’d tear any shred of clothing off her as soon as they were home for the night.  Yet as he walked up the stairs, his light arousal fell away completely to his apprehension about meeting Donna Joanne DeMarco, the hermaphrodite life partner of his current director that was either going to offer him a role in a female-oriented softcore video or in a hardcore bondage feature… and whose other star had specifically requested him, had even twisted arms to get him in…  He arrived in the hallway, expecting Lyndon to be there, but nobody was there, and his heart beat in his throat. Then, however, before he even had to raise his hand to knock on the door that read ‘K. Bayle’ in fine, gold lettering, it swung open and the man himself smiled his way.

“Ah, Clint, there y’are!  Nice an’ early, too!  Deej is gon’ like that… well, uh, we’re still waitin’ fer her _other_ appointment… but c’mon in!”  He ushered him into his office, where Lyndon sat right next to a woman in a tight-fitting dress.  She looked oddly unimpressing, not at all like he’d expected: she had the body of an awkward teenager despite being in her late twenties, with only slight hips and breasts.  She had to be wearing compressing boxers, too, because the dress fell tight against her pelvis and yet nothing out of the ordinary was shown: she did have the slightest bit of stubble on her chin, though, and when he entered, she’d just plucked out a stray hair from the edge of her jaw with her neatly trimmed fingernails.

“Ah, so this is da man I’ve heard so much about!  Nice to meet ya, nice to meet ya!”  Her voice was androgynous - just a little too deep for a woman’s, just a little too light for a man’s - and her handshake was firm.  “I’m DeeJay DeMarco, but I’ll let ya call me Donna or Deej.  Kevin here is the star of my southern skies-”

“Now, darlin’, don’t yew git all  _poetic_ ‘bout our relationship in front’a others, yeh  _know_ tha’ gits me all shy…”, Kevin protested - it was rare to see a man in his line of work flustered, but this woman managed it with some wax poetry and an admittedly sultry look.

“Heh, what, ya wanna tell him how great of a lay you are on- and off-screen, Kevin, babe?  …Aaaanyways, ya’re here for a new project I wanna do, but Annie-”

“Who?”, Dwight asked, and the woman gave him an incredulous stare before Kevin was once again the one to speak up.

“Ah figured yew wouldn’t know yer new co-star yet since she stars mostly in Deej’s  _harder_ stuff-”

“Annie Lee.  Her regular jobs for me have her workin’ with my star attraction, Master Ignatio Jackson.  If you don’t know her, then the technical term ‘switch’ won’t mean much to you either, but… well, to put it in layman’s terms, Ignatio’s the dominant one, but not  _every_ time, ya see?  So she does everything, kinda.  She can be soft, an’ mellow… but she can also be wild an’ ruthless.  For her job with you-”

“Ah’m here, ah’m here!”  The voice issuing from the doorway was warm and slightly hoarse, a little like Anna’s voice would be if she was ten years older, and then in walked a woman that Dwight could only hope Anna would look like in ten years.  She didn’t stand tall, but something about her exuded power and control: whether it was her red hair, tied neatly back in a low ponytail, or her T-shirt that read ‘you can’t afford to fuck me, baby’ worn over deep blue easy jeans, or the way she looked at him…  “Ah, so ‘e said yeah, did he?”

“Thank Christ he did.”, Kevin muttered, something Dwight duly noted but the woman either ignored or hadn’t heard; she walked over to him and shook his hand, and Dwight was surprised to feel the calluses on her palm, showing that she’d done manual work for a time.

“Ah’m Annie Lee, Clint, a real pleasure tuh meet yew.  …So, miss D’Marco, whut’s it yew got in store fer us?”

“Heh, ya already know it’s not a hard edgy thing, Annie, but… well, I kinda figured there ain’t much vids out there yet that are oriented ta  _older_ single ladies.”

“‘s This yew callin’ me old, Deej?”, Annie said with a smile on her face, and Dwight suddenly knew, instinctively, what the director had meant when she’d described her before with the term ‘switch’.  It looked like she could go from gentle to intense in a millisecond, like a switch being flicked, and he found himself feeling uneasy again.  The next second, however, Annie Lee laughed and her words relaxed Dwight again.  “…Well, compared tuh  _Clint_ ‘ere, ah  _am_  old, ah figure, so ah’m’a let this one slide.  Fer once.”

“…Ya ain’t old, you’re… old _er_ , Annie.  But anyways… it’s not quite MILF ‘cause ya don’t have the body of a  _mom_ , but… ahem, let’s go with  _mature_ , huh?  …Mature single ladies wanna have their fantasies too, ‘bout pickin’ up a younger guy an’ havin’ a ball with him.  An’ this is… well, I wanna do either a couple of shorter, fantasy-oriented vids, or an honest-ta-god series explorin’ the age difference thing.”  Dwight sat in silence, looking to his co-star who nodded good-naturedly - not eagerly, as Anna would’ve nodded had she been offered a series with him, but with a kindness that felt amiable and refreshing.

“Well, ah’m good with either.  An’ Clint ‘ere also agrees, ah’m sure, Deej - whutever yew say, goes.  We jus’ git paid an’ follow yer lead.”

“Now, Annie, ya know it ain’t like that!  …Clint, I strongly believe, for the kinda mellow vids I put together, that my star actors put as much’a their own experiences an’ thoughts into it as I do.  That means ya gotta  _be friendly_ with each otha, ya gonna be lookin’ into each otha’s intimate lives!  …Okay, so if ya both good with a series, why not make it a fuckin’ series!”, she said, grinning from ear to ear, and now Dwight saw the other side of the director with ease.  He repressed a shudder that Annie noticed and that caused her to softly snort, which DeeJay fortunately took as a positive reaction to her grin.  “Heh-hey, I knew ya’d be on board, Annie!  Ya my number one gal, afta all!  Clint, too?”, she asked, and Dwight shrugged, figuring it couldn’t be bad.  It’d pay more, after all, and it wasn’t any different from any of the other side projects he’d done before.  “…Yeah, uh, Kev, how’s it sit with you?  I mean, you basically  _owned_ Clint for a year-”

“Ah still wan’ finish the series  _ah_ got goin’ with him an’ Ivana, but hell, ‘s all good with me.”

“I’ll pay you back, Bayleaf, babe…”, DeeJay said seductively, and Kevin grinned and answered just as warmly.

“Mmm, ah’ll bet yew will, mah li’l prima Donna…”

“Oh,  _don’t call me that_ , sweetcheeks, this is the only unstained dress I still own-”

“Ahem, yeh might wan’ escape quickly, Clint, son, unless yew want an eyeful ‘s well as an earful-”, Annie said, grabbing Dwight’s hand and pulling him gently along outside: the two directors ignored them, and even before the door closed behind him and his new co-star, Dwight could hear Kevin Bayle make lewd promises that had him feeling like his entire face was on fire.  “Well, uh, we still got a few minutes… reckon we oughta have a li’l talk someplace quiet an’ git properly introduced.  C’mon with.”  She motioned for him to follow, which he did with rising apprehension.  They were going to Studio 6, which was nicknamed ‘Studio six-six-six’ unaffectionately by those that didn’t work there: it was the place where all the fetish videos were recorded, and it was appropriately dark and secretive.  However, Annie seemed to have a free pass inside, because the people guarding the entrance stepped aside for her without even blinking.  Inside, the air was oppressive, and the sounds of moans and passionate cries were occasionally drowned out by hisses of pain and pleas for mercy.  It made Dwight’s skin crawl. They halted at the edge of one set, where a man with a gas mask and singed gloves on - and nothing else, though Dwight didn’t really see much from his point of view - was getting spanked by a woman wearing the tightest leather outfit he’d ever seen.  Her voice sounded shrill, so they’d probably voice-over the material later, in a studio; not that they had much choice, he noted, because the acoustics of the studio were terrible.

“What was that?!”, the woman asked, and the man in the mask muttered half-anguished and half-entranced.  “I can’t hear you!  _Speak when spoken to!!_ ”

“Mm shhrrrrrh, Mmmsshtthhhrrrrssssshh!”  It was unintelligible due to the mask, but the woman seemed to accept it: she gave his behind one last whack and then allowed the man to get up, shaking her head and speaking derisively.

“And I suppose you want me to take care of  _that_ as  _well?_! Well,  _do you_ , you filthy maggot?!”

“Nnnuuhhh, Mmmshhtrhrrssssh!”, the man said, shaking his head to add emphasis to the loud garbled answer, and the woman snorted.

“Good, because I won’t touch  _that_!  Give us your hands!” The man’s hands nearly  _flew_ to the woman’s, and she tightened handcuffs around the gloves’ bottoms, pressing them into the man’s skin hard, before looping the chain between the cuffs into a rope hanging down from the ceiling and pulling it up so he stood defenseless in front of her.  “Spread!”, she again commanded, and the man complied with a whimper that could just as easily be anxious as eager, Dwight realised, just like the man’s breathing could be quick due to either fear or arousal.  Or  _both_ , of course.

“Okay,  _cut_!”, a voice from the side called, and the woman in all-leather relaxed, looking back at the man with the gas mask. Her voice, as she spoke to him, was softer and more sympathetic.

“Flamer, did I hurt you?”

“Mmh, nuh…”  He took off the mask, revealing a heavily scarred face with large, expressive eyes, sweeping back sweaty black hair that probably fell around his shoulders if it was dry.  “I c’n take it, ‘s all gud… oh!  Dellyuh!”  He grinned as he waved at her, his hands still bound, and she chuckled.

“Ah’m not gon’ hug yeh now, Ashey, love, not when yeh’re freakin’ out mah new filmin’ partner…  Uh, so ah’m Delia Conagher, an’ this fine specimen ‘s Master Ignatio Jackson, otherwise known as mah lover, Ashton Blair-”

“Ash f’r friends.”, the man corrected, putting on a bath robe that the woman in leather gave him.

“-an’ the lady that were jus’ cursin’ him out on screen ‘s the  _stern_ Madam Tetra Scythe, otherwise known as the lovely Amber Blackburn-”

“How d’you do?”, the woman said, extending a hand still clad in a long latex glove that Dwight shook with some apprehension.

“Uh, ah’m doin’ great, well, considerin’…  Uh, ah’m Clint Barrett, but in real life ah go by-”

“Dwight Markham.  …Anna and I are, well, I suppose you could call us friends.  We have the same agent and we frequently meet in between filming for coffee and gossip.”  Dwight smiled and nodded.

“Ah, yeah, now that yeh mention it, ah believe she did mention yeh a couple’a times.  An’ yeah, ah’m Dwight Markham.  Partner’a the beautiful Ivana Yarod on-screen an’ lover ‘f the amazin’ Anna Rodgers off-screen.”  He then looked at Delia, prompting her to speak up again with a warm look to her lover and the woman he’d been co-starring alongside.

“Ash, darlin’, ah’m just gonna talk tuh Dwight real quick ‘bout what he’ll need tuh do an’ all, an’ then ah’m comin’ over tuh yew, okay?  Aftercare ‘s real important-”

“I know… mm, ‘kay, see yuh soon?”, he asked hopefully, causing her to smile, nod, and then kiss him on the cheek.

“Don’t take a  _cold_  shower jus’ yet, darlin’, awrigh’? …So, Dwight, the dressin’ rooms are in back, ‘ere-”, she said, pulling him along to the side of the set, where a door sat hidden among the lighting equipment.  Once inside, the door shut behind them, the noises of the set ceased completely, and he saw a comparative sea of luxury: soft carpets, doors leading to spacy changing rooms, and posters every few feet about proper aftercare, proper healthcare, and self-help groups.  “…Yeah, uh, we git our fair share’a sex addicts in ‘ere.  Ain’t no way t’go in a business like this.  Th’only one it worked fer ‘s Dante.”

“Yeah, well, it ain’t workin’ fer him anymore, he’s focused tha’ there sex addiction ontuh one, maybe two, people now, so…”, Dwight commented off-handedly, prompting Delia to chuckle and look him over.

“Hell, yew know ‘im?  …Think ah’m gonna have tuh have lunch with yeh someday.  Yew, me, Ash an’ Anna.  …okay, this ‘ere’s mah li’l room.  C’mon in.”  The door looked just like any other door, but the inside clearly showed that Delia had taken over the room completely: the walls were a bright yellow color, and the wall around the window was painted to resemble a beach with rolling waves - the window had been painted to look like it was a posterboard, with the view of the trees outside just a poster.  “…Yeah, it ain’t exactly home sweet home, but… in a place like ‘is, it’s a haven.  Yew prob’ly got the same with yer own dressin’ room-”

“Ah got a trailer.”, Dwight said, walking to the wall and admiring the work done on it.  “…The detail’a this…”

“Ash did it fer me.  He’s mighty handy with a brush just ‘s much as with a paddle an’ rope.  …Anyway, have a seat, ‘s gon’ be easier tuh talk sittin’ down.”  Dwight nodded and sat on the chair while Delia sat down on a pouffe that stood next to her small couch, which she first moved over closer to Dwight.  “…Now then, Dwight… ah jus’ wanna discuss whut we like an’ what we don’t like so we don’t git intuh awkward territory t’morrah…  Ah’m gon’ need yew tuh be  _open_  an’  _honest_ with me - ain’t no time fer blushin’ or feelin’ shy, hun.”  The way she said it made Dwight blush softly, and then she patted him kindly on the arm and he grinned.

“Well, ah kin see us bein’ friends, Deliah, so… uh, whut ah like…”  Dwight felt a little apprehensive all of a sudden, hiding his unease by grinning and twiddling his thumbs.  “…Ah never figured ah’d talk ‘bout mahself an’ mah sexual preferences all casual-like, y’know, give me a moment…”

“Heh, it’s awright, darlin’.  ‘Ere, maybe ah should start… ah like hard.  Ah’m not a tweenager no more, far from it, an’ ah _had_ soft an’ slow.  Hard an’ deep ‘s whut gits me off.  As fer foreplay, ah like bein’ fingered just ‘s much as the next girl, but ah like bein’ pleasured orally better.  An’ ah  _love_ t’pleasure orally.  Ah git loud when ah git close.  …Let’s see, whut else… ah, yeah.  Maybe yew like tuh do anal, but ah… well, ah did that, but ah don’t like tha’.  Ah’m used tuh bondage vids so light bindin’ with a scarf or somethin’ might come up, ah ain’t opposed… but yeh might wanna  _blindfold_ me rather ‘n tie mah hands.  Ah love bein’ restrained manually, too, an’ in a softer vid like the ones Deej wants tuh do, it’s gon’ be easier tuh pin me down with’cher hands on mah wrists or by holdin’ mah hands than it’s gon’ be by tyin’ me with whutever props we got handy.  Oh, an’ ah kind ‘f git off on mutual masturbation, ‘specially if’n we wouldn’t keep it up ‘till the end.  …Yew?”, she asked, and Dwight looked at her, amazed by the ease with which she had just basically outlined what she preferred to him, a man she didn’t even know.  Not even Anna had been so open and sharing with him.  Sensing his thoughts, she added: “Oh, an’ maybe ah won’t like bein’ finger-fucked ‘s much as when it’s Ash doin’ that, ah reckon yer fingers are shorter ‘n his-”

“…W-well, ah’ll bet he knows yeh better ‘n anyone else ever will, seein’ as yew two are a couple…”, Dwight conceded, to which Delia reacted with a shrug.

“Believe me, there’s about twenty to thirty men in a ten-mile radius from ‘ere that know my  _body_ purdy damn well, but there’s only one man in th’entire world that knows mah  _heart_.”

“Sex is ‘s much ‘bout the mind as it is ‘bout the body, Deliah, girl.”, Dwight said, getting rewarded for his candor with a broad, warm smile and a pat on his shoulder.

“Why lookie ‘ere, finally a man other ‘n Ashey that  _knows_ somethin’  _decent_ ‘bout this ‘ere job!  Now ah’m  _real_ interested tuh hear ‘bout yer preferences.”, she admitted, and Dwight nodded.

“Well, ah got good news fer yeh, ‘cause ah also like hard an’ deep.  Hell, who wouldn’t?  An’ ah have yet tuh meet a man that don’t like gettin’ a blowjob.  Ah… prefer oral too, givin’ an’ receivin’.  Ah tend tuh stay more quiet durin’ filming, even if’n ah’m enjoyin’ what ah do or what’s bein’ done. …Not a big fan’a blindfoldin’-”

“Hey, now, don’t shoot it down ‘til yeh tried it, hun.”, Delia said with a wink that had Dwight snort.

“Okay, ah kin reconcile mahself with blindfoldin’, but no tyin’ me up unless it’s part’a the foreplay.  When the show gits goin’, please untie me?  Or when yeh  _do_ tie me up with a scarf or somethin’, leave the knot a li’l loose so ah kin git loose mahself an’… well, turn the tables.”  Now, Delia looked positively giddy with him.

“…Who are yew an’ what did yeh do with that sweet an’ shy guy?”, she asked teasingly, and Dwight grinned softly.

“He’s still in ‘ere, but ah think the outgoing part ‘s the good work’a mah girlfriend.  …So, uh, basically that’s it.  Oh, well, uh, maybe ah oughta mention ah used tuh do predominantly gay porn, so ah’m cool with anythin’ involving  _mah_ ass.  If’n Donna wants anal in ‘ere, she kin git it, but ain’t nobody said she should git it from  _yew_ , right?”  For a second, Delia looked at him in surprise, and then she laughed, softly at first but then louder and louder until she had to clutch her sides to seemingly keep herself together.

“Oh, Dwight, that is… well, ah’ll jus’ pitch ‘er that idea when the topic comes along, awrigh’?  …Oh, an’ one more thing?”, she added as she got up again, halting mid-stride and causing Dwight to look at her expectingly.

“…yeah?”

“T’morrah, we’re doin’ lunch.  Yew, me, an’ Ash.  He, uh, he likes tuh git t’know mah co-stars, it makes him worry less.” Dwight, thinking back on the scarred man, felt more than a little apprehensive at the prospect, something that shone through in his hesitant reaction.

“…Ash don’t got nuthin’ tuh fear from me, though, ah’m real happy with Anna-”

“Yeh’d be surprised how many guys say tha’ an’ end up gittin’ the wrong idea anyways.  But Ash ain’t intimidatin’, an’ ah don’t need him tuh scare off anyone dumb enough tuh mistake on-screen sex for off-screen romance.  Ah’m  _plenty_ capable’a takin’ care’a them idjits mahself-”

“Oh, ah’m sure y’are, an’  _yew_ don’t gotta worry none ‘bout me, neither.”, Dwight said, grinning when Delia nodded.

“Ah know.  Yew an’ me, hun, we’re gonna git along jus’ fine an’ dandy!  …now, off yeh go, ah gotta give mah lovin’ man a li’l tender care - an’ a healthy blowjob.”, she said, walking him to a door at the end of the hallway instead of the door leading back to the sets, probably figuring he’d like to be spared the embarrasment of having to walk past the various horrid-looking sets alone.  “…See yeh t’morrah!”, she said, and Dwight nodded, waving at her before setting off back to the parking lot so he could drive first to his own apartment to freshen up and get changed, and then to Anna’s apartment to pick her up for dinner.  Her earlier teasing came to mind, and he chuckled, licking his lips before texting her quickly that she’d better be ready for him, feeling more than up to a night of enjoyment with his girlfriend to celebrate jumping into a new project with a co-star that felt like a close friend already.

 

“…Awh,  _Dwight_ , sugar, this ‘s the second time yeh had lunch with her instead’a me this  _week_!”, Anna said - on the other end of the line, her boyfriend sighed.

“ _Ah know, Anna, sweetheart, but ‘s easier tuh eat a quick lunch with her than tuh go all th’way across the terrain fer lunch with yew - an’ besides, ah promise ah’m makin’ up fer it by treatin’ yew tuh dinner at mah ‘partment, Reese ‘s gone fer the week anyways, she an’ Eileen got a week’s vacation in between projects…”_ , he tried, causing her to sigh.

“Yeah, awright… ah’m jus’… ah miss yeh too much, sugar, ‘s been too long since yeh laid yer hands on me-”  Next to her, her friend made a disgusted face, but Anna gave her a scathing look before tacking on for the benefit of her boyfriend: “-or anythin’ else fer that matter, baby…”

“ _Oh believe me, ah’m layin’ on yew_ plenty  _after this ‘ere day ‘s over, Anna, sugar, ah miss yeh somethin’ fierce… but ah can’t complain ‘bout not spendin’ more time with yew, Kevin an’ Deej got this all worked out.  …Ah thought yeh said our li’l routine’a this mornin’ could tide y’over fer an entire day’s worth’a missin’ me, honey?”_ , he said a little more quietly and a lot more heatedly, indicating that he was out of earshot from his co-star, causing her to grin and turn away from her friend before replying in a hushed but equally needful tone.

“Oh, Dwight, darlin’, don’t yeh know yet?  Ah need yew  _all the damn time_ , sugar… ‘this mornin’’ is  _way_ too long ago… an’ this evenin’ is  _way_ too far away still… Ah  _need_ me mah cowboy…”

“ _…Ah know, darlin’… dang it, thinkin’ ‘f all the things ah wanna do tuh yew got me achin’… an’_ hard _… ah’ll have tuh take care’a this ‘ere problem ‘fore ah go out tuh lunch now.  Wish it could be_ yew _, though, takin’ care’a me ‘s y’always do.  Takes a cowgirl like yew tuh tame me, sugar…”_   An unsubtle shudder ran through Anna, but before she could answer, Amber spoke up loudly.

“Dwight, I don’t know what you and Anna are discussing, but try to remember  _not_ to induce nausea in the rest of the world?  I do  _not_ need information about your sex lives, thank you very much!  Now get off the phone and let Anna and I have lunch while you charm our Black Delia a little before your afternoon session with her!”  As always, she was blatantly outspoken, and Anna sighed, but Dwight, to her surprise, chuckled.

“ _Why, ah sure love that tone she uses fer blamin’_ me  _fer her loss’a appetite.  Tell ‘er ah’ll charm Delia just ‘s much as_ she  _charms_ Ash  _‘fore another of ‘er ‘Nights in Black Leather’ videos, that oughta answer ‘er.  …Anna, sugar-”_ In the background, she could hear his co-star’s voice now, the words indistinguishable but the tone amiable and inviting, and Dwight’s tone changed from relaxed to slightly apprehensive.   _“Awh, hell, Delia jus’ told me we’ll have tuh hurry our lunch even more, Deej ‘spects us tuh start shootin’ at one thirty instead’a two-”_

“That’s in half an hour!”, Anna said, looking at her watch first and then her phone in disbelief.  “She’s kiddin’, right?”

“ _Ah wish she were… ah well, jus’ gotta eat quick then.  An’ ah don’t got time tuh take care’a mahself ‘fore lunch, but Delia ain’t mind, ah think.”_ Anna meant to reply when Amber, who had clearly been listening along, spoke up loudly so Dell could hear her clearly.

“Just ask Delia to lend a hand, it wouldn’t be the first time she brought off a co-star in between the acts of the game…”  Anna glared at her friend, intending to speak and say that that was an outrage, but Dwight replied first, his tone showing how hurried he felt.

“ _Ah think ah’ll pass tha’ up, Amber, but thanks fer yer suggestion.  Ah’ll jus’… it’ll go down anyway, if’n ah stop thinkin’ ‘bout Anna… but ah need t’git goin’ now, see yeh later, sugar, have fun!”_

“Y-yeah-”, she started, only to hear the click as the call got disconnected, ending her up putting her phone back into her jeans’ pocket and looking at her friend, who slowly raised her hands with a defiant grin on her features.

“What?  Delia does that, I’m not kidding or lying to you!  As long as the guy she’s handling doesn’t get any  _ideas_ -”

“Ideas like whut?”, Anna asked, raising an eyebrow delicately, feeling  _fuming_ on the inside at the thought of Dwight’s co-star ‘handling’  _her_ boyfriend like that.  Amber, however, seemed to either not notice or not care, if her lazy shrug was any indication.

“Ideas like trying to steal Delia away from Ash.  They’re like you and Dwight,  _disgustingly in love_.  Nobody gets between them - not for lack of trying, though.”  She then smiled.  “Dwight wouldn’t try, anyways.  Like I said, just like Ash and Delia, Dwight and you are  _disgustingly_ in love.”  Anna rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee again, passing her hand over her cellphone in her pocket slowly.

“…So, whut kind ‘f girl  _is_ this Deliah then?” Instantly, Amber looked her over, blinking in confusion.

“D’you mean professionally or personally?”

“Both.  Ah ain’t met ‘er yet-”, she started, but Amber chuckled behind her hand.

“Is this you being  _jealous_ of  _Delia Conagher?_ ”

“Ah ain’t  _jealous!_ How kin ah be jealous if’n ah don’t even know whut t’be jealous  _of_ , Amz?!”, Anna quickly defended herself, prompting a snort from her friend and a softly berating look before she started speaking.

“Well,  _professionally_ , Annie Lee is… she works for DeeJay, has worked for her for about five years, that should tell you something about her skills and what kind of videos she usually stars in.  She’s forty-two so she usually does the more mature roles, and she’s a switch, which means she tops and she bottoms depending on the needs of the moment.  Ninety percent of her videos have her co-starring with Ignatio Jackson, aka Ash, who’s also a switch but who seems to top her a lot.  They did five videos with fireplay-” Anna blinked and looked at her friend in surprise, who shrugged. “-yeah, uh, Delia’s got pyromania so she  _loves_ lighting shit up, but she’s  _way_ more controlled than Dante the Infernist, and Ash ‘s got  _pyrophilia_ so he gets - and I kid you not - bloody  _rock solid hard_ at the sight of even a candle or a lit cigarette.  Once, I lit up in a director’s meeting and he excused himself looking mortified.  Ended up getting the part, though.  Not a bloody miracle, either.  Ash is hung, he’s got long thin fingers that  _any_ woman could get off on, and once he gets going, he doesn’t stop until the other party passes out from a pleasure overload or fatigue.  The words ‘refractory period’ are  _not_ in his dictionary.”  Anna sighed, shaking her head.

“‘Ey, now, dahlin’, don’t yeh praise ‘im too much neither. …So that’s ‘er professionally… but whut’s she like  _outside’a_ that?”

“Well, Delia’s… a little like you, to be honest, Anna, dear. Speaks her mind, tells it how it is, fiercely loyal to her friends… warm-hearted and caring… and passionate.  She and Ash are the fuel to each other’s fire.  If Delia’s in a video with someone else, Ash insists on doing her aftercare, and if Ash is in a video with anyone else, Delia is adamant that she does his aftercare.  I’ve starred with him twice in the past month, the second video just got finished about a week ago, and each time I did,  _she stood waiting by the sidelines_.  Not… you know, not getting off on it or anything, though she certainly enjoys doing the videos she does, but… watching like a hawk, ready to swoop down and  _murder_ me if I did him wrong.  …She’s a little protective of Dwight, too-”

“ _Whut?_ ”, Anna said, instantly realizing how angry that question sounded and softening it by raising her hands, soundlessly prompting Amber to continue.

“…Well, in the past month she and Dwight spent a lot of time together due to the filming, and they’re not always wrapped up in their roles.  I mean… they spend time together as Annie Lee and Clint Barrett, rehearsing lines, discussing scenes and, well, physicalities… but they also spend time together as Delia and Dwight, joking around, talking about you and Ash, about their hobbies and their lives before they became porn stars…  Delia used to work as a mechanical engineer for Standard Oil in the Fort Worth oil fields, which is where Dwight wanted to work… and Dwight went to A&M, where Delia always wanted to go… so they share ambitions, not to mention Delia… kind of sees a kindred spirit in Dwight. Can’t speak for your loverboy, but she definitely has given him a place in her heart.”

“Good fer her.”, Anna said, sounding as insincere as she felt. Yet after a few seconds of silence, she found she had to speak again, looking at her hands as she did so.  “…So she’s married tuh this Ash’a hers?”

“Well, no.  She and Ash are in the most committed relationship I’ve seen so far in this business, though.  Met on the job, got involved in the scene - and when I say ‘the scene’, I mean  _the_ scene. She and him hit it off, and they… kind of got into a master and servant relationship with Ash as the servant.  He’s… well, in any powerplay videos I do with him, he’s the perfect servant. Everything I say is law.  But with her… oh, every word  _she_  speaks is like food for his soul.  He used to be collared and everything-”

“Uh, Amber, yeh… ah don’t understand nuthin’a whut yeh’re sayin’.  Ah kin  _guess_ what yew mean, but… yew mean Delia an’ Ash are… intuh all’a tha’ stuff they do in their videos?”, she asked, and Amber chuckled.

“Ash definitely is, and I’d say Delia’s edges got pushed gradually until where she is now.  And it only started up as a reaction to their videos - their, uh, master and servant relationship, I mean.  Ash had to be the dominator in a lot of the videos, probably because he looks  _scary_ as a result of his burns… but it didn’t sit right with him, overpowering Delia.  So he suggested that they turn the tables outside of their professional life, suggested an actual  _contract of ownership and authority,_  and it… worked out for them.  Delia owned Ash - and ‘owned’ I mean as in ‘she paid money for him and got offers to put him up for sale’.  He wore a collar onto which she could clip a leash if she so wanted it, hence the term ‘collared’.  Ash  _loved_ being the submissive, and that way they both saw the other’s side of things.  That’s when Delia became  _huge_ on aftercare, and when Ash fell hard for her.  About two years, I think it lasted, him tailing Delia like a puppy tailing a nice piece of steak, hoping for a nibble…”

“…’s Their relationship open?  Ah mean, if’n one’a them sleeps with anyone outside’a the relationship, no feelings involved, then… then th’other’s okay with tha’?”, Anna asked, and Amber snorted.

“Well, I figure there has to be a degree of open-ness to their relationship, they have to make videos with other actors, of course, but-”  Anna impatiently raised her hand and cut Amber off.

“Think ah’m gon’ wanna have a word with miss Delia Conagher ‘bout mah Dwight.”  She was deaf to her friend’s protests, focused instead on getting up and leaving the small diner just outside the studio grounds.  Amber didn’t follow her immediately, but when she was waiting to cross the street again, her friend joined her, her face a slightly blotchy red from a deep blush.

“Anna Rodgers, that was the  _second_ bloody time you had me pay for the both of us after lunch!  If you plan on making stickin’ me with the bill a habit-”

“Ah’m not makin’ it a habit, Amber, but please, keep it down while yeh’re cussin’ me out, awrigh’?  If’n Dwight hears us comin’…”  Amber suddenly fell silent and shook her head almost imperceptibly, as if to show her friend that she was wrong.  The two of them walked over to Dwight’s trailer, which stood right next to Studio 5, where most of his film with Delia was being shot and where the non-series projects he filmed together with Anna were filmed as well: it had stood there ever since he’d started his first project with her, making it easier for them to see each other and have a little privacy after filming.  But now, it was clear that someone else was using the trailer for a little privacy with  _her_ Dwight: Anna could hear Delia’s voice as she approached, laughing lightly at something Dwight had said, but then Dwight spoke up, his words garbled due to the distance and the hushed tone he’d used, and Delia’s answer was also quiet until Anna pressed her ear as close to the trailer’s metal exterior as she dared without betraying her presence.

“…yeh sure ‘bout it, then?  That this is whut yeh want, ah mean?”  Delia sounded thrilled for some reason, and Dwight’s answer sounded equally giddy.

“Yeah, ‘m sure ‘s ah’ll ever be.”

“Well,  _hell_ , Dwight, hun, yer Anna’s  _never_ in a  _million years_ gon’ see _this_ comin’!!  …Ah only wish Ash would…”  She whispered the remainder of the words, so Anna didn’t hear them, but the resounding kiss she gave Dwight was impossible to miss or to misunderstand - Anna, by then, was already beyond livid, the only thing holding her back from storming into Dwight’s trailer and demanding to know what the hell was going on being the unmoveable grip Amber had on her left wrist.  “Oh, Dwight, won’t y’invite me with when yeh do it?  Ah wanna see the look on yer lady’s face when-”

“Awh, Deliah, y’don’t gotta ask, yew an’ Ash are on mah guestlist, ‘course.  …Oh, ‘m so… ah don’t think ah kin  _act_ like this, ah don’t feel like Clint even a li’l bit.”

“We’ll jus’ tell Deej, she’s gon’ understand an’ she’ll give us a few more minutes tuh… well, tuh cool down… so, how d’yew plan tuh-”  Anna wanted to hear more, she really did, but at that precise moment Amber yanked her back hard and pulled her along until they stood well out of earshot from the people inside the caravan, at which point she venomously berated her.

“Anna, what was the bleedin’ idea?!”

“‘Ey,  _yew_ heard ‘em too, they’re plannin’ somethin’, somethin’ t’do with me - an’ she kissed him.  Tha’… tha’  _serpent_ kissed  _mah Dwight_!”

“‘Course she did, they’re friends - and about what they’re planning, you don’t know if it’s about you or if it just happens to involve you!  And you  _can’t ask_  because then your sweet little Dwight will know you were  _spying on him_!”  Then, however, her friend changed tone, going from livid with her to mildly worried and curious: “…I do wonder what they’re planning, too, though… suppose I ask Delia?”

“Naw, don’t yew go talkin’ tuh  _Delia_ none, d’yeh hear?!   …Ah-”  Just as they meant to speak on, Anna’s cellphone rang, and she groaned before answering the call.  “Penny, ‘m not in the mood.”

“ _When ‘ave you ever been een zee mood, ma chère?”_ , came the reply, and Anna rolled her eyes.  Her agent, Penelope, would’ve been great as an actress herself, considering her talent for flair and drama and the way she flaunted her body: more often than not, though, it was her keen insight and her shrewd negiotiation techniques that got the upper hand, and she’d gotten her roles that others would readily murder for.   _“Donc, I take eet zere ees no wish for small-talk zen, no?  I ‘ave spoken to anuzzer director, monsieur Sorensen, about a project ‘e weeshed to ‘ire you for.”_

“Ugh, ‘m not in the mood tuh switch directors  _again_ , las’ time yeh had me do tha’, the project got cancelled halfway through.”, Anna said, to which Penny answered with a soft chuckle.

“ _Well zis time eet weel not be comme ça, Anna, chère amie… ‘E ‘as zee scripts, ‘e ‘as zee filming schedule… all ‘e doesn’t yet ‘ave is zee eenterested male co-star, but per’aps zat lover of yours, Dwayet-”_ Anna meant to speak scathingly about Dwight, the conversation she’d overheard coming back to mind, but suddenly she got another idea.  Another, slightly cruel idea. Nodding to herself, she spoke into the telephone.

“Penny, ah think ah know jus’ the guy fer it… git me an appointment with tha’ director…”

 

“…Huh, ‘s odd, this ‘s got tuh be the first time Anna blew me off fer a meetin’ with a director…”, Dwight said, scratching his head as he read the text message she sent a second time.  “…She don’t even mention who it’s with.  Normally she’s always all excited - ‘ooh, ah’m doin’ a film with Gunner now’ or ‘this time it’s with Philip’ or even ‘they’re bringin’ in an outsider fer this, guy named Sven Hansson’…”

“Awh, Dwight, hun, maybe she don’t know yet who it’s with… it happens.”, Delia said cheerfully, patting him on the arm as she poured herself a glass of water.  “…We oughta focus on  _our_ recent meetin’ with  _our_ director - DeeJay ‘s given us a real darn puzzle tuh ponder over now with this film we’re doin’ next, Dwight…”

“Ah know, Deliah, ah were jus’ thinkin’ the same thing.”, Dwight admitted, looking the script over again as it lay on his table.  “…Well, Deej were  _adamant_ that it’s gotta be done, but… kin we be honest again?”

“Dwight, darlin’, ah’m nuthin’ but honest with yew.  Ah’m  _always_ honest with friends.”, Delia said, prompting Dwight to nod and answer.

“Me too, Deliah - awh, ‘s amazin’ how great ‘f a friend yew are.  Yeh’re smart an’ kind, an’ Ash is a lucky feller with yew.  Heck, ah hope Anna’s just ‘s great as yew are when she gits t’yer age-”

“Careful now, Dwight, yeh’re makin’ me feel old again.”, Delia said, though she said it with a smile.  It was an inside joke between them by now, the fact that their age difference was so clear and yet so unimportant in their friendship.  Delia said often that Dwight was just as world-wise and well-educated as her own father, who had been a successful mechanical engineer back until about the time Dwight was born - she’d even jokingly said ‘as one fine engineer dies, ‘nother one ‘s gotta be born’, meaning that her father may have passed his mechanical inclinations to him - and Dwight brought up the fact that she was as warm-hearted as his mother, as smart and tech-savvy as Anna, and as fierce as all of his other best friends.  “…so go ahead, speak yer mind.”, Delia said in the comfortable silence between them, and Dwight nodded, focusing once again on the problem at hand, which was the fact that Anna had been asked to cross a boundary.

“…Ah got some experience with anal - or, well, ah’ve got  _extensive_ experience with it…  The way yeh told me yeh first got t’experience it has all the makin’s ‘f a real darn dumbass doin’ it tuh yeh.  Either they  _meant_ tuh hurt yeh, or they were really clueless ‘bout proper prep. Thing is, somethin’ like that don’t jus’…  Yer ass don’t git wet like yer vagina does, so lube is always an essential.  An’ dependin’ on how yeh go, yeh use diff’rent lube.  Guy used a condom?”, he asked, and Anna nodded.

“He… the condom were lubricated-”, she said, and Dwight instantly realized two things: first, that her experience with anal was from  _before_ her porn days - which was kind of a given, because anyone in the industry had a basic working knowledge of how the various kinds of sex worked - and secondly, that the man who she’d been with had lacked common sense and/or literacy.

“…Yeh sure upgraded with Ash, then.  Condom’s ‘re treated with spermicidal gel, but that ain’t lube.  Ain’t no wonder yeh ain’t liked it, must’a felt like yeh were tearin’ open down there after a while.  …An’ ah’m bettin’ he didn’t properly prep yeh first, neither.  …Yeh seen Ash do anal?”

“Well, Ash ain’t real intuh that neither.  Don’t like it on him, an’ he don’t like fuckin’ people in the ass none, either. Says God created pussies fer tha’, or mouths if’n yeh really git desp’rate.  Yeh know them underwear with traffic signs on ‘em? The ones that got ‘exit only’ on the back?  He’s got those.” Dwight chuckled, knowing the underwear she meant.  He’d once gotten a full set of them as a gift from Teresa.

“Ah got the ones that say ‘right ‘f way’ on the back, wearin’ ‘em right now ‘s a matter ‘f fact.”, he said, laughing along with Delia when she did so before turning serious again.  “…Look, Deliah, ah’ll be real slow an’ patient with yew in tha’ there scene: ah know how tuh prep yeh right, an’ ah know a li’l bit ‘bout yeh by now so ah’m gon’, well,  _distract_ yew from whut ah’m doin’ in th’rear by lavishin’ on yer front.  Ah’ll talk tuh DeeJay ‘bout it, too, say yew really ain’t intuh all’a this an’ that yeh need t’be eased intuh this.  Who knows, she might even like th’entire idea.  …An’ if’n yeh want, ah’m even talkin’ tuh _Ash_ ‘bout it, jus’ tuh let ‘im know ah respect all’a yer boundaries an’ all-”  Dwight said it apprehensively, because he knew his co-star reasonably well by now but her lover was not someone he knew all that much about.  It didn’t help that Ash spoke very little at all, impeded by a lisp and by an overdose of shyness most likely due to his burns.  But before he could finish the thought, Delia smiled brightly at him and shook her head.

“Yew don’t gotta talk tuh Ash ‘bout it, ah’ll explain tuh him.  An’ he’ll understand.  …So, kin ah ask yew a personal question, Dwight?”, she suddenly said.  Most of her ‘personal questions’ were about whether or not he’d done a certain something in his private sex life, and this time was no exception, he was sure of it.  “…Yew an’ yer Anna do anal?”

“Well,  _ah_ do.  She ain’t pegged me, if’n that’s whut yeh mean.  She ain’t real intuh it neither, says she likes me fuckin’ her ‘properly’ more.  Bet that’s gon’ be whut Ash says, too.  That he don’t like it much neither ‘cause he likes takin’ yew like nature provided fer.”

“‘Like nature provided fer’… why, Dwight Markham, ah didn’t take yew fer a poet!”, Delia said in an overly affected tone, which prompted Dwight to jokingly articulate his speech to sound like someone high-class.

“Why, mah darrlin’ lady, ah am full of surprises!”  They laughed loudly, feeling tension and unease wash off them to be replaced with the usual ease and mild pre-filming nerves they always had.  “…Think we oughta practice our lines one more time?”, Dwight suggested, and Anna shrugged.

“We still got ‘bout an hour ‘fore the set’s ready, so-” Suddenly, a knock on the door of Dwight’s trailer startled the both of them.

“Who is it?”, Dwight called out, and the last man he expected answered.

“D-dwight, ‘s Ash… ‘s Dellyuh with yuh?”

“Ash, honey, come in.”, Delia answered in Dwight’s stead, walking over to the door to embrace her lover as soon as he stood inside the trailer.  Dwight could tell just as easily as Delia had that the scarred man was upset: he shook like a reed, and what still showed of his unblemished skin looked pale and slightly sweaty, as if he was coming down with an illness.  “…Ash, yeh’re soakin’ in cold sweat, whut  _happened_ , luv?”

“D-didn’t… s-she tried tuh… didn’t wunna…”  Disjointed words were all the man could utter, and Dwight poured a glass of mineral water from his fridge and handed it to Ash.

“‘Ey, now, Ash, it’s okay… c’mon, sit down, drink a li’l… ain’t no one gon’ try nuthin’ in here.”, he said, and the other man looked at him wide-eyed before complying, drinking the glass in one big draught before sighing.

“…Ah had… d’rectur’s meetin’.  Got asked f’r a nu project.  S-silly vid.  D’rectur liked meh.  M-mah co-star… D-dwight, yuh…”

“C’mon, Ash, calm down, pardner.”, Dwight said emphatically, and Delia built upon his efforts by running her hand over his arm slowly and soothingly.

“We’re listenin’, luv, jus’ listenin’.”

“…Dwight, m-muh co-star… ‘s yur Annuh…”

“Oh, an’ yeh’re worried ah wouldn’t like tha’?  Ash, ‘s okay that she’d do a film with yew-”, Dwight started, but the other man shook his head.

“N-nuu, ‘s not… w-we talked.  In the d’rectur’s office. Aftur, she… Annuh said we c’n talk.  So ah go with her tuh her… dressin’ room.  ‘N’ there she… y-yuh got t’understand… Dwight, s-she thinks yuh ‘n Dellyuh-”

“She thinks me an’ Deliah are…  _awh hell_ …”, Dwight said, groaning out the curse.  “Darn it, the last few days, she’s been quiet with me, a-an’ she’s cancelled dinner plans one night sayin’ she didn’t feel well… Christ, ah thought ah told ‘er there ain’t nuthin’ ‘tween me an’ yew, Delia, ‘m so sorry. There… Ash, yeh  _know_ ah wouldn’t dare.  Ah’m purfectly happy with Anna.  Y-yeh  _know_ tha’, don’t yeh?”, he asked, suddenly a little apprehensive, and Ash nodded, answering absent-mindedly.

“Yuh, yuh, ah know… b-but yer Annuh… s-she tried t-tuh… t-tried t’ _touch_ meh-”

“ _What?!_ ”, Delia reacted, anger instantly and almost naturally flaring up.

“N-nuthin’ happ’ned!”, Ash quickly said, raising his hands - Dwight figured he knew his woman best so he let him defuse the situation before coming to his aid and potentially firing her up even more.  “S-she tried, ah ran off… r-right t’yuh, Dellyuh.  Annuh ‘s… think she only tried tuh… ‘cause yuh an’ Dwight ‘re so close. T-think she’s jus’ jelluss.”

“… _Christ almighty…_ ”, Dwight exhaled, sinking down on a chair as well, shaking his head in dumbfounded disbelief.  Could Anna really have stooped as low as to try and… his mind couldn’t even find proper words for her attempt to  _violate_ Ash.  “Gawd damn it, this ain’t right, none’a this ‘s right… Deliah, Ash, ‘m so, so  _sorry_ ‘bout this-”

“Hell, Dwight, yew ain’t got nuthin’ t’be sorry about!”, Delia said, her words kind and the touch of her hand on his shoulder gentle and soothing though the tone of her voice was still enraged, and Ash added to the sentiment the next second.

“Y-yuh ‘re a gud guy… yuh don’t… yuh ‘ren’t intuh mah Dellyuh, ah know… ‘n yur Annuh ‘s jus’… not thinkin’ right-”

“When ah’m done with ‘er, she sure ‘s hell won’t be ‘thinkin’ right’.”, Delia fumed, but then she turned to Ash again, a curious expression of mingled apprehension and amusement on her features.  “…Ash, did Anna by any chance mention  _why_ she thought me an’ Dwight were havin’ ourselves a li’l off-screen somethin’ goin’?”

“Y-yuh… now ‘t yuh mention it… s-she said sh’overhurd… s-something.  ‘Bout yuh wantin’ tuh see th’look on her face when Dwight… t-told ‘er sumthin’…”  Delia snorted, and now it clicked for Dwight as well and he looked at Ash first and then at Delia.

“Tha’?   _How’s she misconstrue tha’?!_ ”

“She must’a only heard that part’a the conversation, Dwight, darlin’… wait, Ash, lemme bring y’up tuh speed a li’l…”, she said, leaning in and whispering into Ash’ ear, after which the man got a bright, almost  _childish_ expression of glee on his face and spoke rapidly.

“Wow, Dwight, y-yuh lucky man!  Yuh gon’ do good!  S-she’s gonna be s’rprised!  …B-but she thinks yuh want tuh…  _leave ‘er_ …”, he then added, joy being replaced by sadness again, and Delia snorted.

“Yeah, ah think we might need tuh do somethin’ about that, Dwight, or she’s gon’ keep actin’ up like she tried t’do with Ash ‘ere.  …An’ ah kind ‘f wanna teach her not tuh mess with  _mah_ Ash.”, Delia said, to which Dwight answered with a sigh.

“…Yeah, but… but if’n ah  _tell_ ‘er ah’m not havin’ anythin’ goin’ with yew, she ain’t gonna believe it none.  So how?”

“…Well, Dwight, darlin’, ah got an idea…”  Delia started to outline her thoughts, and as she finished, Dwight had to admit that it sounded perfect.  It’d require him to push back a  _lot_ of his boundaries, however, and there was always the chance that Anna would end up hating his guts anyway.  Both of those thoughts, he communicated to Delia, who nodded, but it was Ash that spoke up and sealed the deal as far as Dwight was concerned.

“…S-sure, ‘s not easy, but yuh’re strong, Dwight.  Yuh c’n do this.  ‘s Fur  _her_ that yuh do this, not f’r _yuh_.”

“…fer keepin’ Anna, ah’d do anythin’.”, Dwight admitted, and Delia grinned.

“ _Excellent_.  Ash, think yeh kin bring ‘er over ‘ere tuhnight?”

“Yus.  …’m sorry, Dellyuh…”, he said - Dwight could understand that sentiment, since he’d just basically agreed to letting another woman think she had any kind of claims to him, and he found his heart aching as well at the thought of Anna doing anything with Ash just to feel vindicated for something that she thought he’d done, but he then reminded himself that all would be set straight that night, and he nodded.

“Hell, ah’m sorry too, fer  _all’a us_ …”

“Don’t be sorry, Dwight, none ‘f us kin help this.  Not even yer Anna.  …But pardon me fer enjoyin’ the thought’a what we’re gon’ be doin’ tuh set the record straight ‘gain.”, she said, sounding grimly satisfied, and Dwight nodded.

“Ah pardon yeh fer tha’, ah’m gon’ feel much happier when this ‘s all over an’ done with…”

“Okay, so everyone knows whut they should do?  …Excellent.  Let’s git goin’ then…”

 

“Ash?  Ash, darlin’?  Ah got yer text…”, Anna called out that evening, waiting by the side entrance of Studio Six as the text had said she should.  The building creeped her out, even more so since it was dark out and she  _knew_ what was inside, but with the man running off like that before, at their meeting, she’d been left thoroughly disappointed, feeling at once sick with herself and angry with Dwight and Delia even more.  Sure, trying to get Ash wouldn’t offer any consolation, she knew, but maybe it’d hurt Delia as much as the woman had hurt  _her_.  ‘Stealin’ my Dwight,  _my_ boyfriend, away from me, what’s she even thinking?!’, she mused, clenching and unclenching her hands.  “…Ash?”, she tried again, which was when she noticed a sliver of light falling through the doorway, meaning it was open.  “Awright, ‘m goin’ inside…”, she said to herself, walking briskly over to the door and opening it. The hallway inside was lit, but just as deserted, and she found herself subconsciously biting her lip as she moved further down the hall.  None of the doors were open save one, at the end of the hallway, where a faint light issued.  “Ash?  Ash, dahlin’, yew there?”

“‘M here, Annuh.”, his voice came over to her from somewhere further to the back of the massive open space, littered with small and bigger sets varying in theme from lavish bedrooms to cold-looking stone torture rooms.  “Here!”, he called out again, and Anna caught a glimpse of movement prompting her to walk over to a two-part set that looked most like a container with windows looking in.  A quick glance through one of the windows revealed that it was partitioned by a one-way mirror and that one side held an elaborate array of crops, switches and other whipping tools, while the other side just held a chair that held the middle between a gynaecologist’s chair and a torture chair, with heavy straps running the width of the smooth, black polished-looking surface.  The door on the side of it leading to the chair was open, and Anna found herself wandering inside.

Then, however, after no more than three steps inside, the door closed and Anna turned around to stand face-to-face with someone clad from head to toe in black, who roughly grabbed her and pushed her towards the chair.

“H-Hey,  _HEY_ , whut’s th’idea ‘ere?!”  She tried punching her opponent, but the figure was quicker than her and grabbed her fist, twisted it and then twisted her entire arm behind her back, causing her to groan and try a kick instead.  The figure side-stepped and pulled her along to the chair.  Anna meant to resist until light flooded the little room from the  _other_ side of the partitioning one-way mirror, revealing Dwight standing there, alongside another figure in all black, who held a gun against Dwight’s temple.  They looked right at the mirror, Dwight shivering and looking like he was on the verge of tears and the black figure tense and unwavering, and Anna understood that if she didn’t comply, Dwight was going to get shot.  “Yew… yew fuckin’  _monsters!!_ W-whut’s Dwight ever d-done t’yew?”  The figure didn’t answer, instead giving Anna a small note, neatly handwritten, that held three commands.

‘ _Undress down to underwear.  Get on the table.  Tell us the truth or your lover gets to suffer.’_   So there had to be something they wanted to hear her say, but what?  Was this the anti-porn-industry group again, picking on an easier target this time?  Was this the family of a former porn star that thought she’d somehow ‘corrupted’ them into joining the industry?  Or was this… more personal?  Dwight shivered and sobbed, which was the cue for Anna to hastily comply: shimmying out of her tight jeans and taking off her blouse, revealing the risqué lingerie she’d worn for what she’d hoped was a tryst with Ash, she looked over to see Dwight silently crying and the man in black standing next to him to press the pistol against his head a little harder.  Then, she hopped up on the table and instantly, the figure in black pushed her down and tied her into place with rough motions of their hands.  First her torso, then her arms were tied down, and then her legs were pulled up on the leg rests and secured.  And finally, her head was pushed to the side, so her cheek pressed into the cold material of the chair underneath her, and then secured tightly so she could barely move.

“ _Okay?”_ , came the voice from one of the two, and then the first figure answered after a last check of the bonds.

“Okay, she can’t move none.  Let’s show ‘er who she messed with.”  The two took off the sashes covering their face and head and instantly, Anna gasped.  There was no mistaking the heavily scarred man standing in the other room with Dwight -  _binding_ Dwight’s hands, she noticed, with a length of nylon rope and then looping that rope through a hook dangling from the ceiling to keep him in place.

“Ash?”

“The one, the only… an’ take a wild guess, hun, who  _yew_ are dealin’ with then.”, the woman said in amused tones, causing Anna’s blood to run cold.  Involuntarily, she struggled against the straps that tied her down, only to find that she was indeed secured tightly into place.

“D-Delia.  Dwight’s Delia.”  Delia shook her head mournfully and took a walkie-talkie from her belt, pressing a button on the side.

“Ash, this li’l flower ‘ere jus’ called me ‘Dwight’s Delia’ - ask Dwight if’n tha’’s true.”  Ash, on the other side of the one-way mirror, nodded, then turned to Dwight and grabbed his face roughly, asking him something and then holding the walkie-talkie up to his mouth.

“ _N-naw, ‘s wrong, D-deliah ‘s n-nu-nuthin’ tuh me!  J-jus’ a friend!  A-ah swear, jus’ a friend!  A-ah only love mah Anna! Delia’s_ y-yers _, Ash, only yers!  P-please don’t hurt ‘er, ah_ beg’ _a yeh, s-she… ah don’t know what got intuh ‘er!”_

“…Now let’s try that again.  Take another guess, hun.”

“Ash’ Delia.  Dwight’s  _friend_ Delia.”, Anna said hastily, feeling sick to her stomach at seeing Dwight subdued and helpless at the hands of the man she’d intended to cheat on him with.  Fortunately for her, Delia nodded and grinned evilly at her.

“Too right, hun.  …So yeh’re prob’ly wonderin’ what th’idea is.  Ah mean, here yew are, textin’ mah Ashey, tryin’ t’git him tuh fool ‘round with yew…  Whutever  _were_ yeh thinkin’?”, she asked in a mockingly airy tone, making Anna pale.  Was this all an elaborate revenge for what she’d tried to do?  And if so, would Delia hurt Dwight, whom she was so fond of?

“ _A-anna, please… p-please, darlin’, sugar, please j-jus’… w-whutever they want, j-jus’… jus’ do i-it… oh_ gawd _, Ash, p-please, let ‘er go, sh-she ain’t thinkin’ right… she-”_ Dwight’s voice issued from the walkie-talkie again, abruptly halting when a loud swish, almost like a whip being cracked, sounded from the small device and Ash spoke up authoratively.

“ _Yuh ‘re a fool, Dwight… yur Annuh_ knows _!  Yuh say she’s not thinkin’ right, but she wants t’_ use  _me, t’_ fuck  _me!  She dusn’t care ‘bout yuh!  She_ lied  _t’yuh, t’_ all of us _!!”_ Another whip-like crack, and now Anna saw that Dwight had his pants pulled down, while Ash held one of the many whips that lined the walls and was hitting Dwight across the naked behind with it.  Dwight gasped, a sound of pain beyond the mere physical smarting of the lash the whip had left behind on his buttocks.

“ _A-ah!  Ah don’t b’lieve it, Anna wouldn’t… s-she wouldn’t!  She_ loves  _me, l-like Deliah loves yew, Ash, p-please… t-this has to be a misunderstandin’!”_ Anna slowly exhaled, feeling apprehension dawn upon her.  This wasn’t just revenge: the one single mention of her lying to her boyfriend had made sure that she knew exactly what it was about.  She hadn’t spoken to Dwight about what she’d overheard, hadn’t confronted him, but had instead plotted how to betray him like she knew he’d betrayed her…  Next to her, Delia chuckled darkly.

“Oh, yew  _know_ that Ash ain’t lyin’, don’t yeh, hun? Yeh know yew tried tuh cheat on yer Dwight, the guy that loves yeh, the guy that’d do anythin’ for yeh…  Yew  _know_ yew  _fucked up_ , don’t yeh?”

“A-ah didn’t… ah didn’t.”, Anna said defiantly, and suddenly Dwight cried out in pain as Ash hit him again with the whip. “Ah didn’t!”, she said more loudly, the only answer she got being another pained yelp from her lover.  Tears stung in her eyes now, as she couldn’t move her head away from the scene in front of her, and every time Dwight cried out, she couldn’t shut her eyes. “ _Ah swear ah didn’t!_ ”, she tried - Dwight’s loud cry of her name and a plea for her to confirm that she hadn’t been trying to break his heart like that.

“…Stop lying to us, Anna,  _we know_ that’s what you wanted to do.  I think even  _Dwight_ knows.”  She raised the walkie-talkie to her lips and spoke almost  _lovingly_ into it for her boyfriend: “Ash, switch to the braided leather whip… make ‘im  _bleed_  next…”

“ _N-no!!  No, please, Anna didn’t… s-she… oh god, no, Ash, p-please, no, no no no-AAAAHHH!!”_  Dwight’s voice sounded panicked, and the sound of the whip’s string, made of thin strips of leather tightly braided together, hitting his flesh changed his plea to a cry of pain.   _“Ahh… s-shit… Anna didn’t… Anna… d-didn’t… didn’t… she loves me…_ ”, Dwight panted out quietly in between whimpers of pain, and Anna meant to speak up and lie again until Delia interrupted her.

“Y’see?  Yew don’t  _deserve_ tha’ man in ‘ere with mah Ashey… yew lie, an’ lie, an’ he  _keeps on defendin’ yew_ even if’n he  _knows_ yeh tried tuh play ‘im fer a fool… even if’n he  _knows_ yeh tried tuh go b’hind ‘is back, he’s still standin’ up fer yeh…  Ash, honey, ah think we’ll need to  _break ‘im down_ -”  Whether it was Delia’s words and the terrible truth they entailed, or the fact that a thin trickle of blood ran down Dwight’s heel from his leg now, Anna couldn’t take it anymore and she spoke up loudly.

“Okay, ah  _did_ lie, ah  _did_ wanna screw ‘round with Ash, ah d- _did_ wanna h-hurt yew an’ D-dwight, but only… only ‘c-cause yew two  _hurt me firs’_!  Y-yew an’ him… yeh’re  _fuckin’_ , ah  _know y’are_!  Yew want Dwight t’ _leave_ me!!”, she said loudly, wishing fondly she could turn her head to glare at the woman that was the cause of all her misery, but the next sound managed to make her stare at Dwight again.

“ _N-no… no, Anna, sugar… n-no… how… how could yeh do tha’ tuh me, h-how could y’ever t-thi-think ah…”_

“Ash, treat Dwight’s wounds an’… well,  _perk ‘im up_ a li’l again.  Ah’m havin’a li’l heart-tuh-heart with Anna…”, Delia broadcasted through the walkie-talkie, which she then placed right next to Anna’s head, up where she couldn’t see it anymore, before turning to her and speaking directly to her.  “However yew got th’idea’a me an’ Dwight havin’ us a li’l somethin’, it’s wrong, an’ yeh should apologise tuh yer man.”  From the walkie-talkie issued the faint sound of Dwight groaning as Ash applied some kind of skin cream on his hurt buttcheeks, the scarred hands of Delia’s lover coming back a deep hue of pink due to the blood that still trickled from some of the wounds, Anna presumed. Yet the sight of Dwight’s expression of pain didn’t make her feel more sorry, and her answer to Delia was defiant in tone and choice of words.

“How ah found out what yew an’ Dwight have been plannin’, Delia, ‘s  _mah_ business, an’ ah’m not apologisin’ tuh Dwight fer lyin’ tuh me when he’s been lyin’ tuh me right since he met yew!”

“…Ah thought yew’d say tha’, Anna, hun… so try again.  Tell me yeh’re sorry, then repeat them words tuh yer Dwight, an’ ah won’t  _make_ yeh sorry.”, Delia said simply, and Anna snorted.

“ _Yew_ , make  _me_ sorry?  Ah’m sorry, dahlin’, yeh must got me confused with someone else, someone that actually  _falls_ fer yer ‘tough woman’ tricks.  Ah’m not sorry fer textin’ Ash, ‘m not sorry fer wantin’ tuh make yew an’ Dwight feel just ‘s double-crossed as yeh made me feel these past few weeks… ah’m-”  Delia sighed dramatically - in tune with a sigh from Dwight, who was discussing something with Ash in a hushed whisper so that Anna couldn’t hear what they were talking about - and then took a small suitcase from next to the door and opened it, revealing several glass instruments in varying shapes along with what looked like a long, purple vibrator, only with a plug instead of batteries. As Delia looked her over, grinning wickedly, Anna felt apprehensive again.  Clearly the plan wasn’t to shoot Dwight, or not anymore, but what was she planning to do now?  “…Whut… whut’s the idea’a _that_ thing?  Yeh gonna  _vibrate_ me tuh death unless ah apologise, ‘r whut?”, she asked with heavily forced bravado, to which Delia only answered with an even broader and more evil grin.

“Oh, baby girl, yew don’t know  _jack shit_ ‘bout how ah’m gon’ git yew tuh confess tuh Dwight how low yeh  _really_ sank just ‘cause yeh were jealous’a me…  Allow me tuh quickly educate yeh.”  The older woman plugged in the purple vibrator, then clicked a long, thin glass instrument onto it and then casually, almost barely touched it to Anna’s right ankle.

“ _Ouch!_ ”  Anna saw the spark jump through the glass, and she felt the light but distinctive sting of an electrical discharge course through her muscles and tissues to her knee, causing her leg to softly shake.

“This li’l miracle ‘s called a violet wand, hun.  Ah think yeh’re familiar with how an electrical shock feels by now.  An’ how it’s gonna git yeh tuh confess?”  Delia clicked loose the thin glass rod she’d equipped the violet wand with and then clicked on a less long, slightly more thick addition onto the main item and brushed it along Anna’s inner thigh, making her squirm and hiss in pain.  “Let’s just say there’s a  _fine_ line ‘tween pleasure an’ pain that we’re gon’ be explorin’  _in-depth_ tuhgether.  The longer yeh take tuh come clean tuh Dwight, the more time yeh’ll be givin’  _me_ tuh use this li’l magic violet wand…”  Anna meant to reply to that, but a sudden groan from Dwight made her refocus her attention to her boyfriend: looking through the one-way mirror, she saw him push back against Ash’ fingers.

“ _F-fuck, Ash, yer fingers… oh gawd, ‘s been too long since ah been fucked like ‘is…”_

“ _Y-yuh want me t’fuck yuh?  L-like I fuck D-dellyuh?”_ , Ash replied, grinning crookedly at Dwight and pulling his head back to speak to him, his voice still loud enough to make it through the walkie-talkie with ease:  _“S-she likes it hard… ‘n deep… ‘n I bet yuh’re tight, jus’ s’s tight ‘s her… yuh want?”_

“ _Christ, yeah, Ash… f-from behind… oh gawd…”_   Next thing Anna knew, a sharp, lasting tingle of electricity was applied to her nethers and she pushed against the restraints binding her to the table, cursing just as emphatically as Dwight had but for much different reasons.

“F-fuck!”

“Told yeh, hun, the sooner yeh come clean tuh Dwight, the sooner this ends.”  Another zap from the tool in Delia’s hand and Anna writhed on the table, realizing that the older Texan woman was right in every respect.  The electricity had the same effect on her as Dwight would have if he suckled on her skin, but  _far less pleasant_.  When applied to her privates, it aroused her just as easily, but the pleasure was laced with pain, subtle but undeniable.

“Confess.”, Delia said, holding the wand an inch away from her privates, but Anna shook her head.

“Ah got nuthin’ tuh confess - not tuh yew, not tuh Ash, not tuh Dwi- _aii-ai-aiiii!_ ”  Her word got interrupted by Delia pressing the glass end of the violet wand right against her labia and leaving it there, sending _searing_ ripples of electricity through her flesh and into her core, making her body convulse in a brutal, unrelenting and  _completely unsatisfying_ orgasm.  Then, from the walkie-talkie, Dwight’s own strangled cry of release issued, compounding the physical dissatisfaction with emotional pain, because for the first time it wasn’t  _her_ name that he spoke.

“ _Ohh gawd, Ash… f-fuuuuck… Aaaash!! Ahh ye-e-e-e-ahhh…”_

“ _D-dwight, ahhh fuuuuuhhh!”_ , Ash answered, grabbing Dwight’s hips and thrusting hard into him a few times before tremblingly holding him close and then chuckling.   _“Y-yur Annuh ‘s makin’ uh m-mistake…  W-we c’n call in D-dellyuh… s-she’s gud at blowjobs-”_

“ _N-naw, Ash.  Anna-”_

“ _Annuh don’t luv yeh, Dwight… she was gunna cheat on yuh w-with me… s-she dusn’t care that yuh hurtin’ now… s-she didn’t apologise… “_

“Ah think that were a fuckin’  _pitiful_ orgasm, hun, don’t yew?  Maybe yeh need a li’l  _oral_ stimulation, huh?”  Anna tore her attention away from Dwight and Ash and looked at her tormentor to see Delia grinning down at her, a small sticker of sorts on her cheek.  “Let’s see now… wow, yeh sure were dressed fer success, too bad Ash ain’t intuh teasing ‘s much as he’s intuh straight-up rough fuckin’ - you know, the kind he jus’  _lavished_ on  _yer_ Dwight…”, Anna said quasi-playfully, giving the waistband of Anna’s lacy underwear a little tug, making the younger woman groan.  Every word and every action the woman used against her mentioned Dwight, and how wrong it was for her to hurt and betray him.  It wasn’t that she didn’t know how lucky she was to have Dwight and call him her own: it was that she was positive, absolutely certain, that she could no longer call him her own anymore, not since Delia had appeared in his life.  Delia seemed to sense her thoughts, because she spoke as she pulled the underwear off her.  “Ah git the feelin’ yew don’t believe me an’ Dwight when we tell yeh we didn’t step out - ah didn’t cheat on Ash with yer lover an’ he didn’t cheat on yew with me.  Think we oughta teach yew a li’l  _understandin’_ ‘ere.  So this is whut ah’m gon’ do. Ev’ry once in a while, ah’m gon’ pause an’ give yew a chance tuh come clean tuh Dwight an’ tell him exactly how, when an’ why yeh started plannin’ on betrayin’ him.  An’ when ah give yew a li’l pause an’ yeh  _don’t_ confess t’him, Ash is gonna ask Dwight  _again_ t’call me inside so ah kin suck ‘im off. Yew  _know_ Dwight’s a sucker fer oral, an’ Ash ain’t gonna give it to ‘im, so there’s gonna come a moment when he wants a blowjob more ‘n he wants t’stay true tuh yew, ‘specially with how yeh tried tuh hurt ‘im.  …An’ once ah’m gone from this ‘ere room, yeh kin be sure, hun, that  _Dwight’s_ gone from yer  _life_.  Y’see, jus’ like Dwight is gon’ give in tuh mah Ashey’s suggestions ‘bout me blowin’ him, he’s also gon’ give in tuh our s’gestions tha’ yew  _ain’t_ ‘is dream girl.  …Ah ‘ere we go, yeh’re all ready fer me!  …Oh, an’ one more thing,  _don’t_ bother tryin’ tuh squirm outta reach, ah kin guarantee yeh won’t like me fuckin’ yew with the wand but ah’ll shove it up yeh if’n yew don’t play nice.”

“I’m’a never-”, Anna started, but then Delia’s tongue flicked out over her swollen labia and she jumped, the bindings holding her against the table rattling softly.  It felt just as unpleasant as the violet wand had felt, but the item itself was nowhere in sight now.  “ _Fuck_ , h-how-”

“Heh, yeh kin say it’s  _magic_ , darlin’ - the magic’a  _electrodes_.  Imagine whut it’s gon’ feel like when ah bring y’off with mah tongue.  Okay, firs’ chance.”, she said, almost casually exhaling softly over Anna’s privates, but she didn’t speak - and then, right on cue, Ash did.

“ _Ahh, Dwight, y-yuh so tight… ‘m close uh-g-gain… w-want me t’call in D-dellyuh?  S-she won’t mind s-suckin’ yuh-”_

“ _N-nooo… oh gawd, Ash, f-fuck ‘m close too… ahh, Chriiiiist… b-but Anna, ah… ah can’t… Anna’s t-the only… oh-oh…  uuuuhhhn…!”_ Anna could clearly see Ash’ hand closed tightly around Dwight’s length, coaxing his seed from him in definite spurts, and the man himself chuckled next.

“ _Annuh’s been mean t’yuh, Dwight - Dellyuh ‘n me wuld never be mean…”_

“ _B-but ah_ love  _Anna… ah… oh gawd, Anna, w-why’d yew-”_   Dwight’s next words were drowned out of Anna’s brain by the sudden intense ripple of hurtful pleasure that coursed through her body as Delia slowly ran her tongue across her labia and then ever-so-lightly circled her clitoris before going downward again.

“Fuck-fuck-shiiiit!  D-delia, please… i-if’n yeh want Dwight t’be yours so bad, jus’ take hi- _iiiiiinnnn…!_ ”  Anna’s breath got expelled from her lungs mid-syllable as her body  _again_ convulsed painfully, only this time Delia didn’t stop her ministrations and the pain  _continued_ to course through her. It wasn’t worthy of the name ‘release’.

“Second chance, hun… better confess, yeh won’t git a lot ‘f chances no more-”, Delia said, and Anna scowled, prompting the older woman to raise her hands and sigh.  “Fine, see if’n this isn’t yer last chance-”

“ _CHRIIIIIIIIST!_ ”  Whatever Delia had meant to say next got drowned out by Dwight’s loud curse: looking at him again, Anna saw Ash laying on the floor and Dwight, his hands untied by now, eagerly riding him, spurts of his semen having landed as far as Ash’s long, sweat-slicked black locks.   _“Oh fuck, Ash, ah love ‘is position, ah ain’t even_ told  _Deliah ‘bout-”_

“ _D-dellyuh… oh god… mmmmh…”_   Ash meant to speak persuasively at Dwight again, but halted when Dwight drove down onto his length sharply, coaxing another orgasm from him.  Semen dripped down Dwight’s thighs, and not all of it was his own: Ash grinned as he spoke up further:  _“W-we shuld… call in Dellyuh… s-so she can suck yuh off w-while I eat yuh-”_

“ _Christ almighty, Ash…!”_ , Dwight groaned out, and just like that he started riding Ash with more fervor, clearly aroused by the prospect.  Anna knew that double oral got him off unfailingly, which made it a reason for him to avoid it at all costs in any of his videos because he knew he could never stay in character.  But then he surprised her, both by slowing down and by speaking up.   _“N-no, ah can’t, ah… A-anna thinks ah’m che-cheatin’ on ‘er with Deliah, i-if ah let ‘er suck me off it’d be showin’ her she’s r-right-”_

“ _Annuh ‘s hurt yeh, Dwight… m-me ‘n Dellyuh, we’d never hurt yuh.  Nevur.  L-let us take gooooood c-care of yuh… nnngh… oh, Dwight, p-please let me ‘n Dellyuh f-fuck Annuh ‘n her lyin’ an’ hurtin’ yuh f-from yur mind…’n yur life…”_

“ _B-but ah_ love  _‘er… ahh, ah_ love  _m-mah Anna… S-she’s th’only one fer me… D-deliah knows t-that, an’ so do yew-“_ Anna meant to speak praise to her boyfriend, to commend him for staying true to her and confessing his love for her, even in the face of a promise of  _double oral_ , but she then remembered that he hadn’t stayed true to her.  Or had he?  Why would he resist Delia so overtly, so repeatedly, if they’d had an affair before? And why had he said ‘Anna’s the only one for me, Delia knows that and so do you’?  What did Delia and Ash know that she didn’t?

“Time’s up.”, Delia said right before latching her lips around Anna’s clitoris and gently suckling on it, ripping Anna from her thoughts and setting her off yet again.  Her entire stomach ached by now, from the electricity and the unrelenting chain of sexual buildup she’d had to endure: orgasm was more pain than pleasure, even if Delia knew just how to lavish her tongue over the tender spot over and over to prolong the experience.  Time held no importance anymore: Delia clearly didn’t let up, and after a while Anna felt her entire  _body_ ache and her mind growing more and more distant until a sharp slap brought her back to the there and then.

“Last chance, Anna, hun.  Last chance’a holdin’ on to yer Dwight.  If’n yeh miss this one, he’s walkin’ away with me and mah lover.  …Ash is gonna suggest Dwight face-fuckin’ me and yew  _know_ he’s already on th’edge’a givin’ in-”

“ _Ohh AAAASSSHHH!!”_   Dwight’s cry interrupted Delia’s speech, and Anna watched, tears welling up in her eyes outside of her control as she watched Dwight come, spurts of his fluids flying from him as if he hadn’t already lost it four times.  And then, seemingly mocking her, he dropped down to his hands and knees and crawled away from Ash, shivering and clearly completely beside himself.   _“F-fuck, yeh gotta… ah need it so bad, Ash, ah need t’be sucked… please, ah’m beggin’ yeh-”_

“‘ _m not suckin’ yuh off, Dwight, but Dellyuh-”_

“ _But Anna-”_ , Dwight said, his voice sounding like he was sobbing - or like the aftershocks of his fierce orgasm were still ripping through him, something further evidenced by a thick glob of Ash’ seed leaking from his sphincter - and Ash was quick to cut him off.

“ _Yuh wan’ get married tuh sum’un that fucks ‘round jus’ tuh hurt yuh?  Yuh wanna spend tuh rest ‘f yur life with a womun like tha’?”_ Anna froze, looking at Dwight.  Get married? How did they arrive at  _that_ topic?  Yet, now that it’d been mentioned… if she saw her future, it was with Dwight, even now. Kissing Dwight in a shower of rice, him carrying her over the doorstep and into bed… growing old together…  That was what Dwight wanted.  She could tell from the hurt look in Dwight’s eyes that  _that_ was what her lover’s deepest desire was: to cement their love, not throw it out the window.  Yet, as if to remind the both of them of what  _she’_ d intended to do, Ash continued in a mellow, persuasive voice:   _“Dellyuh ‘n me aren’t married, but we know whut ‘love’ means.  D’yuh think ‘love’ means whut she gives yuh?  …Say ‘yush’ t’Dellyuh ‘n me, Dwight… let us fuck yuh good… let us show yuh whut ‘love’ really means…”_ Anna knew it before she saw Dwight’s lips move, seeing it in his eyes.  He hadn’t cheated on her, he hadn’t lied to her.  But her near-betrayal and Ash’ unrelenting alternation of pleasure and sweet-talking had been driving him to the point where the balance would tip, and the balance had tipped that exact second.

“Gawd damn it, y-yew two win!  Ah confess  _everythin’!!_ ”, she yelled out before Dwight had the chance to speak, before Delia or Ash had the chance to move.  “A-ah… las’ week, w-when Dwight blew me off fer lunch so he could eat quickly with yew, ah got jealous an’ ah came tuh snoop on yer conversation with Dwight, an’ ah overheard yew talkin’ about me never seein’ somethin’ comin’ and about wantin’ to see the look on mah face, an’ yeh kissed ‘im - an’ _what else could it be_ but yew an’ him double-crossin’ me an’ Ash?!  Dwight,  _please,_ ah… ah  _know_ now tha’ yeh  _didn’t_ cheat on me with ‘er, but please d-don’t… don’t leave me!  Ah… ah need yew in mah life… ah’m sorry ah nearly stepped out on yew with Ash, ah’m sorry ah didn’t talk t’yew, ah’m so  _sorry_ ‘bout  _all’a that_ , b-but please… please…”

“Whut d’yew think, Dwight, kin yeh fergive ‘er?”, Delia said, clearly sounding amused - Anna thought she meant it as a rhetorical question until Dwight’s answer came  _from inside the room_.

“Well, ah dunno… she  _did_ say she’s sorry, but somehow ah don’t… ah don’t really  _feel_ it, y’know?”

“A-ah’ll do anythin’, sugar,  _anythin’_ , tuh prove t’yew that ah  _mean_ mah apology.”, Anna said, sitting up - the straps tying her to the table clicked apart with ease all of a sudden, but her attention was on her lover, who stood before her hard and flustered, his breathing still out of sync.  “W-why don’t ah clean y’up-”

“‘s a good start.”, Delia said, grinning.  “‘Ey, Dwight, since she were so eager tuh give Ash a spin, what d’yeh say tuh lendin’ her t’me an’ him fer a few days?  Couple’a days leashed in an’ tailed up ought’a teach ‘er what bein’ sorry really means… ah’ll reimburse yeh.  How’s ten thousand sound?”, she offered - Anna suddenly remembered what Amber had told her about Delia and Ash, how they’d had a master-and-servant relationship for a while and how Delia had paid money for Ash, and suddenly she looked at Dwight, wide-eyed and fearful, only to find him shrug.

“Well, she did say she’d do anythin’… an’ ah reckon ah kin use tha’ money real well real soon…”

“Great!  Okay, Anna, give us yer neck, so ah c’n put on yer collar…”  Anna looked from Dwight to Delia and back, but then relented with a sigh.  She could take being mistreated by a vengeful Delia if she’d get Dwight back, with no more misunderstandings and bad blood between them.  The collar, a bright blue thing with a name tag on it that even read ‘ANNA’ in ornate letters, felt constricting as it was buckled into place at the back, but far more unsettling was the ten-foot leash that hung from it, held securely by Ash, who nodded appreciatively.

“Firs’, clean up Dwight.  Front ‘n back.  Then, yuh c’n clean  _me_ up, too.  ‘N’ Dellyuh needs a li’l clean-up too-”

“Awh, yew know me, Ashey, playin’ with the wand makes mah heart race… but let’s spare our new pet fer the week th’embarrassment’a eatin’ me out.  T’day.”, she added with a wicked smile that made Anna blanch again.  However, Anna didn’t give her time to speak.  “Okay, a pet needs a tail it kin wag, t’show how happy it is, so when yeh’re suckin’ Dwight off-”

“When yuh  _g’t yur face fucked_  by Dwight.”, Ash corrected, grinning appreciatively, and Delia nodded.

“When yeh git yer face fucked by Dwight, spread yer legs real well, hun, ah got somethin’ fer yeh.”  She held up a beautiful, life-like tail that looked like it’d come from a real dog, placed onto a butt-plug.  “‘s remote-controlled - one’a mah  _better_ inventions, ah do say.  This’ll git yeh waggin’ an’ happy in no time!  …Well, ah do b’lieve the time fer discussin’ this ‘s over an’ done with - go on, Anna, girl, make our friend Dwight ‘ere  _happy_.”  Anna nodded and sat down on her hands and knees, licking the underside of Dwight’s erection which still hadn’t gone down and getting rewarded by the sharp, salty taste of his come.  “Tell ‘im how good he tastes, girl, an’ how badly yeh want ‘im tuh fuck yer purdy li’l mouth.”, Delia said, lightly tugging the leash to remind her that choice was no longer hers to make.  There was no telling what Delia would do to her if she didn’t follow her commands - remembering Dwight’s bleeding rear, she didn’t want to risk it and nodded.

“Y-yeh taste so good, sugar, ah  _luv_ yer taste… please fuck mah purdy li’l mouth, Dwight, dahlin’, ah want yeh to, ah want tha’ so bad-”  Dwight gripping her hair was the only warning she got, and she only barely opened her mouth and relaxed her jaw in time for his first thrust, swallowing around him to suppress her gag reflex.  Yet contrary to his arousal, he kept his thrusts slow, causing her to whimper.  “ _Mmmm hmmm…_ ” Dwight grinned down at her at that.

“…Ahh, sugar, yer mouth f-feels like fuckin’ heaven… r’member, Deliah said yeh needed a tail-”, he ground out, and Anna could then feel feet push against hers, reminding her that Delia had also commanded her to spread her legs to allow her to insert the tail.  It felt alien, but once it sat in place, Anna found that her sphincter clenched down on it just enough to keep it inside, and Delia gave her a grin as she nodded, pointing at Dwight to make sure her attention remained on her lover, whose patience had clearly run out and who was now going at her rough.  Dwight’s rhythm was disconcertingly hard, making her nose hurt after a good while, but that stopped when she tilted her head just a little to the side and Dwight  _gasped_ above her.  “H-holy sheeyiiiit, Anna, y-y’ain’t never… _ahh gawd_ , y’ain’t n-never taken it like ‘is before… fuck, ‘m so close already _…_ ‘m gonna  _drown_ yew w-with mah seed…”

“ _Mmm mmhmmm mmmhhh…_ ”, she exhaled - ‘go ahead, sugar’ - and Dwight’s grip on her hair shifted so he had her head in his hands, his thrusts speeding up and stealing the breath from her until he shuddered and shot his load right into her throat, shiveringly withdrawing from her and looking her over while absent-mindedly stroking himself to make sure he’d stay hard.  “Ah, y-yer ass too, sugar…”, Anna muttered, and Delia positively beamed.

“She learns quickly, this one!  Ash, looks like she ain’t gon’ be ‘s much of a handful as ah expected…  Go on ahead, darlin’, eat ‘is ass out… yeh’re a  _good_ girl, Anna, a  _real good_ girl…”  The praise made Anna smile before she realized that it was the same positive reinforcement one would offer a dog and her new status was once again imprinted upon her.  Dwight, however, softened it considerably when he turned around and leaned over the table she’d laid on before to allow her easier access.

“She’s  _mah_  girl, Deliah, an’ she’s the best.  …Mmm, sugar,  _gawd…_ think ah might come ‘gain if’n yeh eat me out like ‘is…”  Anna first licked the stray strands of semen off Dwight’s asscheeks before licking around his sphincter.  Her first realization was that the taste was nowhere near as bad as she’d anticipated.  The second thought, which naturally followed from the first, was that her lover had had to clean himself up.  But why-  _“Ahh, s-shit, suck a li’l again, sugar…”_ , Dwight groaned out and she concentrated on the task at hand again, gently suckling on the pucker of his ass and getting rewarded by another slow wave of salty liquid, though this lacked the more pleasant fullness of her lover’s seed.   _“Ahh, fuck, Anna… y-yeh’re doin’ me so right… mmmm y-yeah…”_

“I think it’s time for you to clean  _Ash_ up now, Anna, girl - be good and sit up for him.”, Delia said, again tugging lightly on the leash to get Anna to move, which she did hastily after one last look at Dwight, who looked back at her with clear hunger in his eyes.  “Now, Ash is a li’l…  _longer_ ‘n Dwight, so he won’t force yeh through ‘nother rough fuck like Dwight jus’ did, but he might want yeh t’jerk ‘im while yeh suck on ‘is tip, he loves tha’.  Oh, an’ one last thing…  _pay ‘tention now, girl_ , this ‘s important!”, Delia admonished her with a more rough pull on the leash, cutting off Anna’s breath for a second.

“Y-yeah, ah’m payin’ attention, Delia.”

“ _Good._ Well, yeh’re doin’ great so far, so ah’m gonna give yeh a reward.   _Enjoy…”_ Anna meant to ask what her reward would be, but Ash took up her attention the next moment.

“C’mon, Annuh, Dwight told meh yuh’re awesum ‘t blowjobs. Prove it, gurl.”  It was lucky that he was still hard, and Anna first licked along the sides of his shaft before licking slowly along the underside, musing meanwhile that Delia hadn’t lied.  From a distance, Ash and Dwight looked similarly-endowed, but Dwight was a little shorter and stockier than Ash and thus, proportionally, Dwight’s manhood was not as long as Ash’, but definitely thicker. As if guessing her thoughts, Ash lifted her chin and smiled down at her.  “W-which yuh like bettur, me ‘r him?”

“Sorry tuh disappoint, maybe, but Dwight’s  _tailor-made_ fer me, dahlin’…”  She meant to speak on, but at that moment three things happened all at once: first off, Ash gently pressed the tip of his erection back against her lips to show her she should continue pleasuring him; secondly, there was Dwight, sitting behind her and pulling her onto his lap and onto his length, sinking inside of her with an overjoyed groan that sounded a lot like ‘finally’; and lastly she felt the tail come to life - or rather, not the tail itself, but the butt-plug it was attached to, which started vibrating and sent shivers up and down her spine.

“ _Mmmmh!!”_ , she mumbled happily, her ability to articulate lost with Ash’ member filling up her mouth, but Dwight caught the gist of what she meant with ease.

“Oh, sugar, yeh’re a li’l overwraught too, jus’ let me git yew tuh let go ‘gain  _with me_ … oh, but ah’m close, babe…  _so close_ … all ah need ‘s tuh feel yew come, Anna…” His hands wandered to her breasts, squeezing them, and Ash shivered.

“Mmm, yuuuh, c’me fur Dwight, Annuh… uhh, y-yur hand, too…”, he asked, causing Anna’s hand to close around his length to jerk off the scarred man along with gently sucking on the tip of his member.  Delia chimed in, too, but her voice was secondary to Anna.

“Oh, my, yeh sure know how tuh git double-ended… reckon ah oughta aks Deej if’n yew an’ Dwight can’t co-star with me an’ Ash sometimes, yew two would make the perfect pet couple…”  Anna would’ve spoken against the idea if Ash didn’t use that precise moment to grab her head and hold her in place as he filled her mouth with his seed, shuddering and then sighing as he pulled away. “…So, was she any good?”

“Yuh… s-still like  _yuh_ better…”, he tacked on, causing Delia to chuckle.

“Oh, Ashey, ah  _know_ that, yeh silly man!  C’mere, yew, ah kin  _use_ a li’l  _relief_ …”  Handing Anna’s leash over to Ash, Delia motioned for him to lay down before settling down on top of him and groaning contentedly when Ash licked her folds. “Mmm, yeah,  _righ’ there, sugar-”_ Anna looked on as the older woman got pleasured, thinking about all the times she and Dwight had wasted time like that, but then her lover demanded her full attention again.

“S-shit, Anna, ‘m… ah’m  _close_ , sugar… a-ah can’t… yew gotta come fer me right now, baby…”, Dwight gasped out, his hand dipping down to unsubtly but effectively finger her still-sensitive clit, and Anna cried out her lover’s name as she drove herself down onto Dwight again and again, exceptionally aware of how his fingers ceased their play with her nethers instantly to cup her breast as he thrust upward into her, loudly moaning her name. “ _Anna, ohh Anna, ahh f-fuck yeah…!_ ”  He seemed to take his sweet time riding out his release into her, but Anna didn’t mind, she found: this new release brought a completeness, a sense of belonging and rightness that she’d so nearly lost forever.  Dwight seemed to feel that way as well: when he finally came down from his high, he held her close, his hand on her heart.  “…Anna, sugar… yew… ah fergive yew.  Ah fergive yeh for textin’ Ash lookin’ tuh fuck ‘im, ah fergive yew fer bein’ jealous an’ thinkin’ ah had somethin’ goin’ with Delia, ah fergive yew fer givin’ me the cold shoulder fer a week… if’n yew can fergive  _me_ , too, darlin’.  F-fer Ash, an’ _everything_.”, he said, motioning around her.  Faintly, she realized that Dwight meant more than just allowing Ash to take him multiple times, but she decided at once that that didn’t matter.

“…S-so, whut were yew an’ Delia talkin’ about then?  If’n it wasn’t ‘bout yew leavin’ me?”

“Yew really want t’know, sugar?”, he asked - when she eagerly nodded, he grinned and kissed her on the cheek, exhaling shakily. “Anna, darlin’, ah… ah been thinkin’ recently ‘bout how ah don’t want yew t’ever leave me.  So ah told Deliah, who’s mah friend -  _an’ nuthin’ more-_ ”, he added, causing Anna to sigh and turn around to face her lover - Ash readily let go of the leash to allow her to move without pulling on her collar.

“…’m sorry.”

“Heh, ‘s okay, but next time,  _talk tuh me_ instead’a plannin’ revenge.  Ash declined tha’ there role ‘e got offered an’ suggested ‘nother co-star.  One yeh already played ‘longside. …Anyway, ah think yew _know_ whut ah told Deliah-”

“Reckon ah do.”, Anna said, kissing Dwight lightly before leaning her forehead against his. By now, they’d completely tuned Ash and Delia out, in their own happy bubble.  “…But tell me anyway, dahlin’…”

“…Ah  _might_ wanna tell y’ _after_.”, Dwight said shyly - Anna meant to ask what he was talking about when she felt his semi-erect manhood against her inner thigh and she laughed hoarsely, prompting Dwight to blush even more and whisper heatedly to her.  “Ah can’t help it none, sugar, seein’ yew in nuthin’ but tha’ collar an’ yer garter belt gits me  _fired up_ like yeh can’t even  _dream ‘bout_.  Ah’m makin’ love t’yew the way yew like it best, so y’ain’t gonna be sittin’ right fer  _weeks_ -” Anna grinned, and right before she could answer in kind, Delia spoke up in a heated voice.

“Y-yew two are f-free t’do whate-e-ever yeh please ‘s long as Ash is… oh _, oh baby…_ ‘s long as Ash don’t  _pass out_ fuckin’ me…”

“Yeh heard Deliah, we kin go fer a li’l… ah  _need_ yeh, Anna, darlin’…”, Dwight said pleadingly, causing Anna to roll her eyes.

“Since when do ah-”  A soft tug on the leash attached to her collar answered her question and caused her to change mid-sentence: “Since when d’ _yew_  need Deliah’s permission?”

“…Well… yew know how Deliah said she offered ten thousand fer yew?  T’have yew fer a week?  …W-well, ah kind’f need a li’l more fer what ah discussed with ‘er, so…”

“Dwight, yew  _didn’t_ …”, Anna said, and Dwight sighed.

“Effective ‘s soon as we walk out these doors.  But ah believe it’s fer a  _real worthy_ cause, sugar… a cause ah kind ‘f wan’  _fuck senseless_ right ‘bout now…”, he said, roaming his hands over her body, causing her to groan and set aside her protests.

“ _…Mmmh, ‘s long as ah have yew…_ ”

“Y-yeh’re gon’ have me ferever, sugar… oh gawd, i-if yeh’ll let me… if yeh’ll  _have me_ …”

“ _Yeh’re mine every damn way, Dwight Markham, an’ yew better believe ah’m yours any way yeh kin think of…_ b-but righ’ now _,_ jus’  _tame me_ , cowboy!”, Anna pleaded, figuring that further delaying their unison would be cruel to the point of torture.  He’d have time to properly phrase things when they _weren’t_ both starving for each other’s bodies.

 

“Dwight, mon ami!”  Of course it figured that Gabriel, Sam and Jarrod would be the last ones to arrive - but the real surprise lay in the fact that Jarrod’s arm was linked to a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman that Dwight didn’t recognise but that Teresa, Amber and Anna greeted like an old friend.  “…Oh, uh, yeah, Jarrod’s date is Terra Rodriguez.  You might know her as Aisa Hawney-”

“…Uh, might’a heard of ‘er, yeah…”, Dwight said tactfully, allowing her to embrace him and plant three kisses on his cheeks before she grabbed hold of Jarrod again.  “Pleased tuh meet yew, anyway, yeh make Jarrod look a li’l less rogue an’ a lot less out fer a lay-”

“Yeah,  _wishful thinking_ , Dwight, mi amigo.  La hermosa here? Insatiable.  She’s got the stamina of Dante an’ the good looks of Teresa-”  Teresa instantly blushed, and Eileen glared at the Chilean before snorting.

“Yeah, I’ll bet she’ll see just as well as  _my_ Teresa did that your nickname is ‘Speedy Gonzales’ for a _good reason_.” Half of the table laughed, including Sam and Gabriel, and Jarrod grumbled all the way to the table they’d reserved, where bottles of red and white wine and water already were waiting for them.

“…So, what’s tha occasion?”, came the question from Raphael first, who sat with Harvey the barista in the corner - when Dwight had started his relationship with Anna, he’d casually slipped Harvey’s number to his photographer-’admirer’, and the the two had hit it off wonderfully well to the point of Raphael burning all of the nude photographs he’d taken of Dwight.  Next to him, Harvey eagerly added his two cents.

“Yeah, aftah, like, five years’a tryin’ to get ya attention, suddenly ya get me a boyfriend an’ then, a year later, ya invite us to dinnah?  Kinda curious about that, brotha.”

“Yeah, Dwoight, can’t say oi’m not curious too, mate…”, Lyndon admitted, elbowing his partner Amaric into paying attention again instead of lazily exchanging flirtatious comments with Anna’s agent Penelope.

“Well-”

“I’ll bet they didn’t find an apartment yet an’ they didn’t wanna disappoint us by not havin’ the housewarmin’ party they suggested.”, Gabriel said loudly, and the entire table looked like it’d start discussing the reason for their dinner invitation until a calm voice came from by Dwight’s side.

“Y’all,  _shut yer pieholes,_ y’ain’t givin’ Dwight an’ Anna no chance t’explain!!”  Everyone looked at Delia, who gave Dwight a soft pat on the shoulder before slinking back to her spot next to Ash, both of them smiling serenely while the others quieted down.

“…Well, we got good news tuh share with all’a yeh.  Anna an’ me are gittin’ married!”  Dwight grinned broadly, and Anna held out her hand so that the ladies of the company could admire the ring Dwight had bought her.

“Oh  _wow_ , Dwight, that ring must’ve cost a bloody fortune, how did you… you’ve always been tight for cash and even for your apartment, you’ve had to save up, how did you ever manage to buy  _that beautiful a ring_ for Anna?!”, Samantha said, quickly followed by Amber.

“Yeah, that looks like a lot of carats to me - what, did you rob a jeweller?  Hold up a bank?”

“Ah did a well-payin’ project tuhgether with Deliah, so ah had the opportunity tuh put aside a li’l money…”, Dwight said defensively, blushing and looking at Ash who shrugged.  “…Well, uh, let’s jus’ all eat, okay?  Ah mean, unless all’a yew ladies can’t eat ‘cause yeh’re all stunned by Anna’s engagement ring-”  Teresa and Eileen looked like they’d protest, but at that exact moment, the appetizers were brought to the table and any protest fell silent.  While they group drank their glasses of champagne and ate the appetizers, they all lavished congratulations and well-wishes on Anna and Dwight, but Amber leaned to the side a little, nudging Delia with her elbow.

“Why do I get the feeling you and Ash  _know_ something the rest of us doesn’t?”

“‘s probably ‘cause we do.”, Delia answered, taking a sip from her champagne and grinning at Dwight, who again blushed meekly.

“…How did Anna go from completely hating your guts and thinking you and Dwight were having something behind her back to accepting a  _proposal_ from him?  And how did poor cowboy Dwight afford a ring I couldn’t even  _dream_ of buying?”  She then looked the happy couple over again and suddenly her eyes widened.  “…Oh my…  _oh my god_ , are those… are those  _collar burns_? O-on  _both of them_?!”

“That’s fer me an’ Ash tuh  _ever_ know fer sure, Amber, hun.”, Delia said with all the serenity of a cat sitting in front of a bowl of cream washing itself.


End file.
